Japanese Stencil dyeing
I would like to introduce one of my favorite pieces of Japanese culture to you: Katazome. Katazome (Kata: stencil, zome: dyeing)
This Japanese traditional stencil dyeing technique using paste
resist is one of the most unique techniques in the world. Preparing a stencil, carving hand-made mulberry paper smoked by persimmon liquid. To avoid separation of a delicate pattern,
attaching silk gauze to the carved stencil. Applying resist paste made from rice bran and rice powder to a fabric
or paper through the stencil. Cleaning out the paste resist after the dye or pigment has dried, so the
stencil part stays in white as fabric color. Variations of color material:
I use several materials depending on the media I apply. For fabrics, I use mostly synthetic dye, but I will also use natural dyes. For houseware items, I also use pigments. For paper, I only use pigments. My favorite colors come from mineral pigments because, after thousands of years, the hues and shades are still the same because today I am using the same minerals that existed in ancient times. When doing this satisfying work, I feel so connected to the ancient Japanese people who perfected this craft, because we are still working with the same materials in this contemporary period that they used so many years ago! To apply pigment color on the media, we use soy liquid that serves as an adhesive to preserve the color.
