process process process (feeling a little like Goldilocks)
dye concentrates in the window photo by michelle mateus photography
Thank you for joining me here for this quiet little conversation, taking a moment to be with these thoughts, words and images.
This week has been an immersion into processes...painting thickened dyes on to pristine white cloth, nurturing the conditions for the dyes to form their permanent chemical bond to the cloth, fresh water baths to rinse away the seaweed thickener and excess dye particles and washing soda from the cloth, hanging it to dry in the hot afternoons, the next morning exploring the marks and the range of hues thinking about how they will integrate with cloth already painted, with textures laid down on other hot summer days.
before any of that can happen there are many steps to getting everything in place:
setting up the components for the seaweed thickener - a moisturizing agent in warm water, the powdered seaweed, mixed in and left overnight to reach a smooth consistency, mixing the dye concentrates again beginning with the moisturizing agent in warm water, tearing the cloth in workable size pieces off the bolt of cloth that comes on a 100 meter roll, soaking the cloth in washing soda, transporting all of these and marking tools to the outdoor studio on the rooftop ready to begin.
here's a little video of some of the preparations (PS you probably already know but youtube lets you watch videos at faster than the recorded speed - find the speed options in the settings)
then there is much checking and rechecking of the weather forecasts, watching for the temperature range on the rooftop deck to be warm enough and long enough for the chemical bonding, yet not so hot that the dyes and seaweed thickener overheat and create unfortunate colour results. Feeling a little like Goldilocks at this stage: the temperatures not too hot, not too cool, juuuussstt right for all the components to make their magical alchemy together.
finally stepping in to the rhythm of the painting process itself...choosing the dye colours for the day, mixing them in to portions of seaweed paste, laying down a sheet of plastic, laying out the cloth soaked in washing soda, choosing a tool and a motion to lay colour down, fluid movements across the surface, thinking about what kinds of textures i want to create, laying down the next sheet of plastic and cloth...until I've reached my physical capacity for the day, then keeping the resulting stack of layered cloth and plastic within a narrow temperature range of approximately 22C-28C, with enough moisture to enable the dye particles to bond with the cloth for the rest of the day, allowing them to cool overnight. Here's a longer video of a dye painting session from last week.
the next morning impatient to retrieve the cloth stack from the rooftop, separating the cloth and plastic, rinsing each piece first by hand releasing seaweed and dye particles finally in to the washing machine with a special detergent to remove any remaining unbonded dye particles then hanging them up like little jewels on a clothes rack waiting one more time to see how the marks and colours translate after the final processing
dye concentrates, thickeners, marking tools
And as always, I want to express my gratitude to be living and working on the ancestral & unceded territories of the hən̓̓qəmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples.I honour the incredible depths of grace, courage and perseverance of Indigenous Peoples, and look to them as an example as they find their voices amidst the noise and obfuscation of colonization.
until next time,
Mardell