I'm still working on my "palm-leaf" style book, and in the process I had an idea, which lead to another idea, and the next thing I knew I was making stencils to use on my book pages. The designs above are all adapted from Japanese katazome stencils. Katazome is a process for printing designs on fabric where a rice paste resist is applied through stencils and then the fabric is dyed with indigo. I cut my stencils with an X-Acto knife, except for the one with circles which I made using a Japanese screw punch, and I used a kind of paper called oil board that I got from Dick Blick.
I have to admit that I'm intending these stencils for a dual purpose. I'm going to take a workshop with Judith Kruger in June in basic nihonga, traditional Japanese mineral pigment painting. Seeing that I'm in no way a painter, I thought that having a few stencils to play with would help me if I need some structure in the face of blank paper or canvas. I'm hoping to learn how to make mineral pigments that might work for woodblock printing, but I'm also open to learning something I don't even know I need to learn. I'm very willing to be surprised.
2 comments:
Good grief you're glutton for punishment Annie!
I've recently seen a youtube video of Japanese stencils used for printing patterned papers and fabric using a starch paste to resist the dye.
I hope that you enjoyed your workshop using your stencils. They are a great way to get lots of marks on a blank sheet as a starting point. I loved using them as elements in monoprinting, and reading your post has made me think about doing some more soon.
I also want to thank you for mentioning Pressing Matters magazine, to which I have now subscribed. Not only is it interesting in itself, but I was missing input after I cancelled my subscription to Sculpture magazine. It is so great to have physical magazines plop through the letterbox, even though the world is available through the Internet!
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