A Walk Through The Universe: Red, week 4

I'm very excited...I have a treat in store for you with the last post on red!  I've had this artist in mind all month, as who could discuss the color red for four weeks without featuring the one and only Carolyn Saxby of Love Stitching Red!  Many of you may already know of Carolyn and her work, but if not, you're in for a treat....and if you haven't fallen in love with all things red by now....here's your chance!


I asked Carolyn a few questions that I thought might give us an insight into her life and love of making things by hand...with red!

How did you come to be such an aficionado, appreciator and interpreter of such beautiful reds?

My love of red began and developed more than 25 years ago when I came to decorate my home.  When first setting up home I didn’t have a lot to spend on decorations so I thought carefully about theme and colour.  I have always loved primitive homespun things and have always decorated my homes in a contemporary country style with a neutral backdrop of cream and white and I found myself drawn to red as an accent colour.  I now live in a whitewashed cottage that is 200 years old and my theme fits very well with the Cornish granite fireplace and tiled floors.  The white walls and cream furniture make the best of the light and space available and the touches of red are warm and cosy and homey.   I carefully stick to my theme so that my home doesn’t look cluttered so I always seek out objects that are cream, white and red.  I also love silver and tones of grey (pebble colours)

I chose red because, for me, red epitomises my favourite seasons of autumn and winter.  I love the warm russets and red browns of autumn leaves, berries, hips and haws, the festive reds of Christmas, winter berries, cranberries and holly and valentine’s day … red hearts … well red hearts all year round

Reds please me so much.  They make me feel happy.

I tend to go for “berry” tones of red rather than a primary red.  I favour raspberry red, cranberry, burgundy, claret through to dark blackberry and elderberry, as well as autumn reds … the colours of rosehips, haws and winter berries.  Red hearts and berry garlands are a recurring theme throughout my cottage.

As a textile artist, nothing pleases me more than to stitch with red threads on white cotton, linen or silk and make homespun things for my home.  I love red work (red stitching on white) and also white work (white on white).  I also love to indulge my passion for pebbles so I stitch a lot of greys and grey blues with silver and white.

Recently my work for the Brooklyn Sketchbook Project was all RED:
http://carolynsaxby-bsp.blogspot.com/

And the pieces in my erosion bundle are cream and red because at the end of the day I wanted eroded pieces that would fit my theme:  http://love-stitching-red.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-new-bundle.html

However, as you will see from my blogs and flickr, I do work with all colours because I make things for other people to enjoy … so I also stitch a lot with seaside colours of blues, greens and yellows.

Where do you find your greatest inspiration?

My greatest inspiration always comes from nature.  I enjoy country walks and take myself off for a nature walk with my camera most days.  I seek pinky red leaves and buds and berries and try to photograph with a neutral background of a plain sky or twiggy branches.  My least favourite colour is green so I try to crop as much green as I can.  I favour winter skies and trees with bare branches and autumn leaves rather than spring or summer greens

After a while I notice red in everything … red seaweed, shells with touches of pink, red fishing boats in St. Ives harbour, red peeling paintwork and rust

You could say I am a little passionate about red!

Do you do any hand dyeing and if so how does that work itself into the pieces you make?

Yes, I have been experimenting with natural plant dyes for the last few years especially with unmordanted fabrics firstly to see what natural colours can be fetched from plants that are local to me and more recently honing my own dyeing recipes for strength and variation of colour.  Most recent experiments have been with plant dyes and rust tie dyed.  I discovered the rust sometimes acts as an accelerant and I’ve had some interesting results.  I also enjoy dyeing synthetic materials, fabrics buttons and threads with procion dyes.

I use my hand dyed fabrics, buttons and threads in my work and from 1st April 2011 I will be offering some of my hand dyed pieces for sale in textile packs together with some of my heated, melted and bonded fabrics and some of my finished artwork.  I shall be opening an online shop (details to be announced nearer the time).

Any words of wisdom to share?

To have fun!

Just to be as playful as you can with your artwork.  To have fun and never be afraid to try something new.  Always carry a camera or a sketchbook with you to capture things that catch your eye and try to take a few minutes longer looking a little more closely at things.  Also, you don’t necessarily need a fancy camera but taking time to practice a little with the features/settings that your camera has will be time well spent for achieving different looks and taking photos a little closer (macro).  I also carry a plastic bag and a book everywhere I go.  The book is for pressing interesting leaves or flower faces and the bag for gathering …  acorns, berries, shells, pebbles, seaweed etc. which I use in my work or stick in my little art journals.

Links:

http://love-stitching-red.blogspot.com/

http://carolynsaxby.blogspot.com

http://carolynsaxby-bsp.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovestitchingred/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovestitchingred/sets/72157622246825629/

I was going to select a few more photos from Carolyn's flickr site, but I couldn't even begin to choose...so many wonderful possibilities.  I encourage you to follow up on the links to her many blogs and flickr photos.  The last one is full of images of pieces in beautiful soft pinky reds!  You all are going to be busy looking at all the beautiful work Carolyn has to share...I'm heading over to flickr now!  

Cheers!

A Walk Through The Universe: Red, week 2

Pomegranates...hmmm....no.  Cranberries.....hmmmm, no that's not it either.  Red, all things red...what about that insect I'd read about, that they grind up by the thousands to get a red pigment....let's investigate cochineal!   And what an interesting walk I took yesterday! I started out with a Google search and quick scan of information on wikipedia, which you can find here and then went on over to Etsy where I met Kim, a charming traditional dyer in Columbus, Ohio, via her shop, Loch Lomond Studio.  She creates beautifully dyed fibers in a vast array of colors, any of which you can find here.  My initial search for cochineal on etsy revealed a good many hits, but the fibers from Loch Lomond Studio seemed particularly interesting with colors that ranged from deep, rich red to an ethereal lavender-like hue.  Kim agreed to answer my questions on short notice and generously provided a great amount of fascinating information!

Your shop description mentions both tradition and modern dyeing, and that you will be moving toward just working with traditional techniques. What are the differences?

Traditional dyeing is how all dyeing was done for thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution, specifically 1856. 1856 was when modern synthetic dyes were invented by Henry Perkins. I use the terms "traditional" and "modern" to separate the two. The more common terms are "Natural" and "Chemical" or "Synthetic", I feel these terms have been over used and abused, even though they are accurate . I'm more personally more comfortable with the terms "Traditional"  and "Modern". Traditional dye techniques use plants and insects (such as Cochineal) and metal salt fixatives (or mordants). All the materials used occur in nature. Some of the dye stuffs have been used for 5000 years; most for at least 3000 years. All modern dyes are synthesized from coal tar and petro-chemicals. They've been around less than 200 years. Most dyeing done today is done with modern dyes. I find doing traditional dyeing more fascinating from an artistic, anthropological, historic, and scientific stand point.

I'm amazed at the different colors of the yarns dyed with cochineal and what accounts for the wide range that goes from pink to purple (all things being relative!). It must be more than the yarn and the strength of the dye....can you elaborate?

The range of colors that you can achieve with traditional dye material is one of  the things that infatuate me with the process. My favorite dye materials are the ones that produce a wide range of color. Cochineal is one of those dyes.  Depending on what metals are used is one of the ways you can achieve  different colors. To get  American Beauty Red,  alum is used; for scarlet,  tin; purples copper and iron. You can also get purples with  chrome, but I wouldn't advise doing it. Chrome is highly toxic. By combining the mordants you can achieve more colors. Example: If you do a Scarlet Red with tin then do an after bath of iron you get a deep crimson.  Deep colors, stronger concentrations of cochineal are used, for lighter colors less concentrations or exhaust baths. I always exhaust my baths. It's more economical and safer.  It also depends on the Ph of the dye solution, acid more red, alkaline more blue. Different fiber also take the dye differently, I'm going to start working with other fiber and fabric. This dye season I've purchased a semi-wild variety, so I'm curious what colors I'll be able to achieve, it seems this type of cochineal goes more towards the purples. We'll see.....

You also mentioned in your announcement the price of cochineal is skyrocketing...what's happening in the cochineal market and why?!

Prices have gone up six fold!! The cochineal market is volatile. Seems like it always has been. It's a supply problem. Apparently the carminic acid (this is what gives cochineal it's red color) manufactures were keeping the prices depressed, so the small farmers stopped producing.  Cochineal supplies have been cut by half. Hopefully supplies will recover by 2012-2013. Also the harvest was late due to rains.

How did you go from painting to fiber arts and dyeing and also do you make your own artworks with dyed material? 

Children. I stopped painting when I had my children. I was an oil painter and I didn't use the safest of paints. Also with fiber arts I could stop in mid project and deal the many demands that come with Motherhood. I started dying with modern dyes, then moved into Traditional dying when they got older. Although, I always wanted to make my own colors from scratch, even when I painted. What I'm planning to do in the near future is surface design using traditional material and methods..... with a twist.

Visit Kim's shop to see many more colors made with the cochineal dye, along with a great number of other beautiful colors! 

Loch Lomond Studio

A Walk Through The Universe: Red, week 1

Well, forgive me, but February's color just has to be red....I mean it's absolutely everywhere with Valentine's Day coming up! So, this month for A Walk Through The Universe, we'll take a look at all things red. And where to start...well, I hesitate to say it, but I made the gigantic leap from thinking of red to thinking of hearts.  But I'm talking about the real thing, not just the symbolic heart that is adorning every surface this time of year.  The heart...what could I learn about the heart that I didn't already know...not that I'm any kind of expert.  I know the basics of it's function and what the human heart looks like, but I was more interested in the symbolism...like why we still refer to the heart as if it's the seat of the human soul and how that little quasi-heart shaped symbol came to stand for love.  It wasn't long before I came across a fascinating website, heartsymbol.com, found here, which rather succinctly tells the story of how the "playing card" heart arose out of fig and grape leaves that were depicted in ancient art and artifacts.  The website is hosted a German cardiologist, Dr. Armin Dietz, who is obviously interested in all things symbolic, historical as well as physical, about the subject of the human heart...including heart burial.  I first saw that term on a wikipedia page on the heart and it stopped me short...heart burial.  Further searching is what led me to www.heartsymbol.com.  It was a custom sometimes practiced, most notably in Europe, to bury the heart, which was seen as the seat of the soul, separately from the body. It's all fascinating and I encourage you to pop over to www.heartsymbol.com/english to find out much more about the evolution of human understanding about the heart...what it is, what it isn't and how it has all played out in cultures throughout history.

I've been making quite a few treasuries lately on etsy and I've come across some wonderful art depicting the heart that I'll share with you here.  Be sure to check out the other wonderful items from these shops...they're some of my favorites!  Enjoy!

urbanalchemyart

thenightjar

kivaford