Katazome

Katazome is a form of paste resist surface design. That is, a paste made from very sticky ingredients, in this case rice flour, that is pushed through a stencil to define a pattern on a piece of white yardage. Wherever the paste sticks to the cloth, it will resist, or prevent, any color from staining that spot. So the rice paste is resisting the color to create a design on the fabric.

This past weekend I took a Katazome class from Karen Miller in Madison WI. Lois Jarvis organized this weekend after seeing that Karen Miller was traveling cross country with her husband on vacation ending up in Nova Scotia.  Karen posted that if there were any groups along her route that were interest in taking a class she would be willing to stop and give a class. Lois decided it was a great idea and contacted Karen and set up this great opportunity.  We held it at the Goodman Community Center,  a renovated  iron works building.

We had a great time carving our own stencils out of mulberry paper called  "shibugami". Shibugami has been treated with persimmon tannin and smoked as a preservative, and has a deliciously nutty aroma.

Anna, Angelica and Ute cutting stencils.

Diane getting ready to laminate her stencils.

Joy, Sue and Lois working on their stencils.

Stencil designs, we didn’t cut these, they were Karen’s stencils that she let us use, pasted onto fabric, drying and waiting to be dyed.

silk scarves pasted with rice past and drying.

Diane’s, Kathleen’s and Lois’s designs with dye added.

Some of Karen’s designs. These are all carved stencil designs.

We had a great two days, I learned a lot of new techniques and I enjoyed being with creative people.