Textile Stories

Around the world, fabrics are used as a means of transmitting stories, legends and traditions from one generation to another. This space allows me to share what I have learnt about Textile Stories by traveling around the world.

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Kuba Velvet details photos by Edward Addeo for Hand/Eye

Textiles of the Kuba peoples of the Democratic Republic of Congo are made from raffia palm. The grassy fiber, teased from the underside of the young leaf, produces an extremely fine thread that is then woven by village men on single-heddle looms. The women of the village then decorate the fabric by  tie-dying, appliqué, cowrie shells, embroiderying with a flat continuous stitch or with tufts of thread that form a velvety pile.  This is time-consuming work and it takes about a year for a woman to produce.

[fashion-textile]

Maison Lesage / Maison Desrues - CHANEL Paris-Bombay Métiers d’Art 2011/12.

[textilestories]

The story of the art behind Chanel 2011-2012

[terenaina]

Jaipur India Textile Factory by jehouda on Flickr.

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Results of yesterday’s dye session #naturaldyeing #textiles #dyeing #silk (Taken with instagram)

[textilestories]

Such pretty colors and patterns!

[artthisis]

Experimentation with found rust.

[kittyknitcrochet]

My Lab Experiment with Mordants and Natural Dyes

These are the mordants I used. If you would like to know more about what these mordants are and what natural dye materials I used go here. 

[weekendknitter]

(via Catching Some Sun – weekend knitter blog)

This is red cabbage juice dyestock, lol.

[textilestories]

Red cabbage is the second natural dye I decided to try.

Though it is famous for being extremely unstable (minor factors of acid or alkali will modify the color which is definitely not colorfast), I love the pretty fuscia color it produces when I add vinegar to it. 

So far I love the result when it's damp.

Will post a picture of the final result when it's dry.

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Redwood Cone Dyes

Color dyed from redwood cones we collected on the ground from under Oakland old growth trees…The most aromatic dye bath I have ever smelled-like a walk in a wet coastal rainforest. (Much better than cabbage!)

[textilestories]

Golden-beige is the result of my first attempt to use red onions as my very first natural dye. The color in itself is pretty but the tie-die effect makes it too uneven so I guess I'll try to make it richer and homogeneous next time around.

[weekendknitter]

(via Catching Some Sun – weekend knitter blog)

And this is red onion skins dyestock.

We’ll see what we get…

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For generations, Kyoto’s textile families have been producing fabrics with one thing in common. They’re the blackest blacks on the planet.

As far back as the 10th century Japan, black cloth has been associated with nobility, often worn by Japan’s warrior classes. Married women would...

[textilestories]

I see a black door, and I want to paint it black.

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DIY textile dyeing with lichens

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Forget tie-dye: The Study designer is all about this ancient Japanese method.

No surprise here: Tara St James, one of sustainability’s coolest designers, is super into shibori, a time-tested Japanese dyeing style that’s been getting a lot of love in the fashion world lately. She rarely...

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Dyeing Yarn

During my second year of university I hand dyed a range of yarns (including rope, loosely spun wool and cotton) to a colour palette inspired by the countryside.

I wanted the yarn to look as naturalistic as possible so soaked the yarn in a mixture of water and bicarbonate and diluted the dye solution to make a colour which wasn’t that vivid.

I think the process of hand dyeing photographs really well. I love the colours and the candid feel.

I also wanted the yarn to have flecks of different colours and beautiful irregularities. In order to achieve this I applied resists such as rubber bands and bulldog clips.

[textilestories]

Dying. A true scientific experiment.

[be-nomadic]

[vidyaksha-blog]

Clothing dyes by Dey on Flickr.