Title of organized session:
Dichotomies in Silk: crisp and soft, shrinking
and stretching, sheer and opaque, past and future
.Despite
the long history of silk, its potential has not been fully explored in the
light of advancing technology for synthetic fibers during the last century.
However, the silk fabrics and fashions created by American and Japanese artists
in recent years demonstrate silk’s amazing properties as an experimental
creative apparatus when influenced by technology and combined with the
characteristics of natural materials and ingenious handwork.
This exciting new
development is largely due to the design project I began in 1997, collaborating
with Koshimitsu Mill of Kiryu, a textile center in Gunma. Silk broadcloths in leno weave, silk and
linen blends, and crepes were designed to offer new surface design
possibilities. I began with Project
Metamorphosis, a research and development project funded by the Gunma
Prefecture wherein selective international artists and designers were given
these silk fabrics to experiment with and, in return, donated their works.
The basis for designing
these fabrics was to explore the inherent quality of silk using two types of
proteins (fibroin and sericin) combined with high twist yarns and cellulose
fibers. I experimented with untreated
fabric by manipulating the material at each treatment process, such as creping,
degumming, dyeing, resisting. Depending
on a fabric’s woven structure and its ratio of over spun twists to regularly
spun yarn, the gummed and degummed materials shrink to a variety of subtle
textures and densities creating areas
marked by softness and stiffness. These
are some of the effects that artists have been exploring, and the results will
be shared in this organized session.
Title of organized session:
Dichotomies in Silk: crisp and soft, shrinking
and stretching, sheer and opaque, past and future
Paper 1: “Dichotomies
in Silk: Past and Future”
Abstract:
The tradition of silk
weaving and hand dyeing of silk cloth has been an integral part of the Japanese
society and aesthetic, as exists in the Imperial Court of Japan. The Empress
still cultivates the same strain of silkworm koishimaru that dates back to the Nara period (645-794).
Currently, a fraction of the raw silk materials (reeled
silk yarn and cocoons) used to produce Japanese silk textiles are actually
produced by Japan. Competition from
current foreign imports, textile manufacturers’ indifference to the quality of
raw materials, and decreasing usage of kimonos challenge the viability of
labor-intensive sericulture. The Gunma
Prefecture Society for Sericulture Promotion (GPSSP), formed by the Prefecture
in Japan, solicited expertise from a wide range of fields to promote silk and
the artistry of sericulture and filature.
This resulted in two projects producing contemporary silk fabric using
quality indigenous silk, for artists’ and designers’ to explore.
Using Gunma silk, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Genevieve Dion,
Joan Morris in the US have been creating new body of work in wearable and
non-functional art. They exploit the
unique qualities inherent in specially designed silk fabrics through the
application of traditional and modern techniques, creating textures previously
inapplicable to all natural fibers, particularly silk. In Japan, the innovative textile designers
like Jun-ichi Arai, also an advisor to the GPSSP, Yuh Okano, and Reiko Sudo of
Nuno Corporation have been producing unconventional fabrics using the new technology. These works present possibility for future
interpretation and application of silk as a modern material.
Title of organized session:
Dichotomies in Silk: crisp and soft, shrinking
and stretching, sheer and opaque, past and future
Paper 2: “Dichotomies
in Silk: Crisp and Soft”
Abstract:
Shibori, a compression resist dyeing technique,
has become part of our textile vocabulary and for over 25 years I have explored
these techniques in my own production of fabrics for clothing and interior wall
pieces. The ability to work with silk
greige goods (untreated fabric) and shibori expands the shibori vocabulary with
exciting possibilities for the studio artist and designer.
I apply arashi shibori, itajime clamp resist, and
nui-shibori stitch resist on the raw yardage.
The cloth is simmered in a l0% (of dry weight of silk) soda ash
solution. The resulting fabric has
patterned areas of soft silk where scoured and flat crisp areas where
resisted. Through experimentation I
have found that certain dyes will take differently to the scoured and non-scoured
areas, further enhancing this difference. Textural contrasts add to the
dynamics of the finished cloth.
While silk organza may be resist scoured, the
Japanese crepe from Gunma prefecture is the one fabric that has given the most
subtle and complex results. The scoured crepe will shrink radically, the
resisted areas remain flat, and as a result the fabric will pleat conforming to
the resist method -- it may be ironed flat but will re-pleat under water!
I propose to share slides of my working process
and finished fabrics and clothing, and to concisely describe my scouring and
dyeing methods. Through this, I hope to
share my experience and enthusiasm for this new approach to shibori and silk.
Title of organized session:
Dichotomies in Silk: crisp and soft, shrinking
and stretching, sheer and opaque, past and future
Paper 3: “Dichotomies
in Silk: Shrinking and Stretching”
Abstract:
Shibori processes can be
used to generate highly-textured surface designs for the production of pure
silk garments that permanently retain their form and elasticity. To achieve this, un-scoured Japanese Gunma
silk is first shaped using a variety of traditional stitch-resist shibori
techniques. Next, the fabric is
scoured, causing it to shrink due to the
highly over-spun nature of the silk filaments. In unprotected areas, permanent pleating of
the textile occurs, whereas the remaining stitch-resisted and protected areas
of the fabric become permanently textured.
Following scouring, the stitches are removed from the fabric, which is
then further embellished through shibori dyeing.
A major consideration in
designing garments using the aforementioned method is the fact that the
scouring process leads to a sixty percent reduction in the total surface area
of the textile. Therefore, it is
necessary to calculate how and where this reduction will occur before scouring,
in order to ensure that the multiple textures and specific design features
(i.e. cuffs, collars and waistline), appear at the appropriate and designated
positions within the final piece.
Another unique aspect of this technique is that unlike traditional
garment design involving multiple textures, no seams exist between the pleated
and stitch-resisted areas.
Collectively, the elasticity inherent in the final pieces, coupled with
their seamless nature, results in extraordinary fluidity and new possibilities
in design.
Title of organized session:
Dichotomies in Silk: crisp and soft, shrinking
and stretching, sheer and opaque, past and future
Paper 4: “Dichotomies in Silk: Sheer and Opaque”
Abstract:
Since my days as a student of
Junichi Arai in Japan and at Rhode Island School of Design, I have been working
to emphasize the material itself in the manner of a sculptor. It is in my character as an artist and
designer to play with diverse materials and experiment with an array of
techniques that can be applied to them.
I have been applying shaping,
shrinking, and hand manipulation to polyester and silk fabric surfaces to
create sculptural pieces that are sometimes viewed alone or in a group; a wide
array of functional pieces such as scarves and bags; as well as textiles in
collaboration with costume designers including the Academy Award winning
designer Emi Wada for a movie “1/2 Woman” by Peter Greenway.
One of the methods I use is
similar to traditional Japanese paste resist-dying techniques of kata-zome (stenciled) and tsutsu-gaki (hand painted). Sheer silk fabric may be either screen
printed or hand-painted with paste-resist, then immersed in calcium nitrate.
This causes the exposed areas to crimp and condense into opaque sections,
puckering the fabric. The resulting
design is much like a bas-relief pattern set against the reserved areas of the
original sheer fabric. The stronger the chemical solution (or the thinner the
reserve paste), the more extreme the shrinkage. The possibilities in achieving
expressive textural patterns are endless.
Illustrated by slides, I would
like to share my creative exploration using silk fabric and recent technical
improvements in surface design processes.