emiojcraftworks

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Stick Monsters!

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Fresh leaf indigo dye vol 5 & 6

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Natural colored salt dough (hibiscus, turmeric, cinnamon and matcha) pendant necklace with sea shells and beach stones!

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Collage wondsock (or my son calls it kite)!

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Natural dye and paint!

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“I RODUT!”

Today’s craft class was inspired by the Free Play pop-up at McCoy Park during Sunday Parkways (pic 3) and by my son who was playing with the wet berry boxes putting through his arms and feet to pretend to be a robot. The class is for mostly toddlers so I set up the theme - dressing up to be a robot🤖

公園にポップアップで登場した、リサイクル・廃材で自由に子供達が遊べる場。それとベリー狩り中に息子がベリーの箱に穴を開け手足にはめて遊んでたのもアイデアにし、今日のクラフトクラスはみんなでロボットごっこ。

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Drewing with nature “brushes”!

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Book mark or wall hanging with died flowers!

To make dried flowers, I tried two methods - traditionally pressing between books and ironing. Using books takes at least a week while ironing is more convenient, I prefer the traditional method as colors of flowers stay bright.

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Face mask with egg cartons!

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Make n Do!

I started having a craft class at St. John’s Swapnplay, a playspace for 0-7yo located in Portland. It is a work trade - free membership in exchange of offering activities. Is n’t it a wonderful idea?! Let me explain about Swapnplay. I take my son to Swap since he was 15mo and we love the place a lot. There is a massive room i the middle which kids can run around, small cells surrounded such as story room or craft room, and a trading room which is filled up with baby, toddler and maternity items. The place opens six days a week at 8am-8pm! They have lots of events including monthly Parent Night Out - members can drop off their kids for FREE instead of volunteering for a PNO to care kids. It is such a wonderful idea especially for like us whose closest relatives live 3000 miles away. Anyhow, my son is always happy there and that makes me happy too!

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Fresh leaf indigo dye

July and August, 2019

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Black Walnut Dye Workshop


10.6.2018

Photo credit by Caleb Sayan @Textile Hive


This is my fall color - the warmest brown from black walnut husks.
October is the perfect season for fresh walnut dye here in Portland, Oregon. Walnuts have been fell down on the ground and I forage them from my neighborhood trees.


10月といえばこちらポートランドではブラックウォールナッツ染めに最適な季節。夏の間に近所で目をつけておいたブラックウォールナッツの木を目指して、木の実を拾いに行く。



Black walnut dye is triple excellent - color-fast, light-fast and wash-fast, in addition it doesn't require mordants because black walnut contains tannin which binds fabrics. So black walnut dye is one of the easiest and safest natural dye.


Black walnut is edible plant. I use my kitchen stove and sink when I dye with black walnut. I can pour rinsed water to my garden and compost all leftovers. Just one thing I have to be really careful - black walnut stains everywhere! Dyeing well = staining well. I must wear rubber gloves during the process and wipe off immediately if dye is splashed.


ブラックウォールナッツ染めは色落ちしにくく、タンニンを含むため媒染も必要としない、草木染めとしては数少ない優等生の染料。外の柔らかい殻を割って、煮て、染めて、濯ぐだけ。
食べられる素材なだけあって安全。自分のキッチンで染められて、濯いだ水、最後に残った殻はコンポストへ。一つだけ注意するのは、よく染まる=シミになったら取れない！ゴム手袋必須、さもないと手が染まったら数週間落ちないそうですよ。


First Saturday of October, I had Black Walnut Dye workshop at my backyard. It was a part of Portland Textile Month which is first time happening here in Portland during entire October 2018.

What do you need to dye with black walnut husks? An enamel pot (canning pot is affordable and also easy to find used one at thrift stores or garage sale. I use aluminum pot too), a bucket for rinsing, rubber gloves, bricks or hummer to smash husks, newspaper, and a long stick for stiring dye bath. Stick is useful for dyeing wool skeins too. During dye process, keep the stick inside circle of skein in order not to get tangled and easy to fish the skein up from dye bath.


ブラックウォールナッツ染めに必要な材料。ホーローの鍋 (アメリカではカンニング用に売ってる黒い鍋が大きくて軽くて安くておススメ。わたしはアルミの鍋も使ってます)、濯ぎ用のバケツ、ゴム手袋、ナッツを叩くハンマーや石、新聞紙、そして長いスティック。これは染料の入った鍋をかき混ぜたり、特に輪になった毛糸を染める時、輪の中にスティックを入れたまま浸けておくと毛糸を吊り上げるのが簡単でぐちゃぐちゃにならない。



Smash pounds of walnut husks. I foraged black walnuts in my neighborhood in the morning of workshop. Shape of black walnut is just like a small lemon but color is light green, but the morning I found lots of round shape walnuts as big as small apples!

You can separate husks and nuts but during the workshop we put all parts in the mesh bag (cheese cloth or laundry bag) as we were not going to eat them (cracking hard shell of black walnuts would make way more mess!) also for limited time of workshop.

朝、夏の間に目をつけておいた木を目指して、ナッツを拾いに行く。大抵ナッツは黄緑がかったレモン、という感じの色形なのだが、その日見つけたのはまん丸でゴロゴロ大きい、小さめの青リンゴといった感じ。スーパーで貰う紙袋2つに半分くらい詰めると、かなり重い。

大量のブラックウォールナッツの黄緑色の殻を叩くところからワークショップは始まる。時間がゆったりあれば肝心のクルミの部分を取っておいてきれいに洗って硬い殻を割って、、いやいや、その作業はそこら中にいるリス達に任せよう。ブラックウォールナッツの染料になるのは、黄緑色の柔らかい殻の部分。石やハンマーで割って染料を染み出しやすくし、中の硬い殻、いわゆるクルミの殻の部分にも繊維/染料が残っているので、効率性を優先して全部メッシュバッグに入れます。


How much of husks you need? In general, as for natural dye you need two to four parts of dye materials and one part of fiber. But the more materials the darker color for sure! And for black walnut dye, the longer soaking the darker color (notice: not for all natural dye. Some plants would turn dull after longer soaking).

Put the mesh bag of smashed husks and nuts in the pot and pour water (about a half level for this time). Simmer the pot for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Keep stiring and squishing husks with a stick. I also prepared another dye bath a week ago and kept it in the basement refrigerator. As a result I don’t think both dyes really created different depth of color but it was definitely useful to have two pots for 10+ participants.

基本的に草木染めには、生の植物である場合染めるものに対して2〜4倍の量が必要とされています。乾燥したものだと1対1。もちろん、植物の量が多いほど、染料は濃くなります。そしてブラックウォールナッツ染めに関しては、一晩以上長く浸けるほど濃い仕上がりになります（植物によっては長くつけすぎるとくすむので注意）。

潰した殻とナッツを鍋に入れ、水を注ぎます。水の量は被染物を入れた時に浸るくらいがいいでしょう。３０分から1時間くらい煮出します。その間、スティックで殻を押しつぶすようにしながらよく撹拌します。ワークショップのために1週間前に染料を作って地下の第二冷蔵庫に保管してたので、10人ほどの人数には鍋が2つあって丁度良かったです。

Add fabrics and yarns. Usually I take the mesh bag out from the pot before putting fabrics in, but for this time we didn’t take it out because we did not simmer the husks for plenty time. Dye pot was so crowded with nuts full of heavy mesh bag and fabrics...! This was the hardest point but we needed to turn and stir fabrics constantly. Rest. Repeat. Heat was still low but steam was hot.

Wood stick is useful at this point. To not to get tangled wool yarns, keep the stick inside of the circle of wool skein (see photo below). When you rest, leave the stick in the pot. When you pick up the skein, guide with the stick and “fish” it. (See picture below)

Turn the heat off after 1 hour. You can leave the fabrics in the dye bath overnight. For the workshop, we squeezed exceed dye of fabrics. Remove thread of tie dye. Rince with cold water.

通常は染料を煮出したら被染物を入れる前に植物は取り出すのですが、今回は煮出す時間が３０分くらいと短かったためとナッツはメッシュバッグに入れていたので、被染物はそのままインしました。鍋の中はきゅうきゅうでしたけど。。でもここは染めで肝心、頑張って被染物を揉み込んだりひっくり返したりして、全体に均一に染まるようにこまめに動かします。このずっと間火は弱火で沸騰直前の状態です。少し休ませて放置、またひっくり返す。毛糸のかせはこの時スティックが役立ちます。休ませるときはスティックを輪に引っ掛けたまま、釣り上げるときは下の写真のようにすれば、毛糸がぐちゃぐちゃになる心配はありません。

1時間ほどで火を止め、出来ればそのまま一晩放置したいところですが、時間が決められたワークショップなのでここで被染物を引き上げます。絞りなどしていた糸はここで切って広げ、冷水でよく濯ぎます。

Here are our beautifyl work! Color would become lighter after drying out though it doesn’t fade more than that after laundry washes.

板締めした模様がきれいに入りました！乾燥すると色味は少し薄くなりますが、ある程度落ち着くと何度洗濯してもそれ以上は薄まりません。さすがブラックウォールナッツの染料、強し。最初にも説明しましたが、タンニンを含むことで染めが安定するようです。

それにしてもこの色味、いかにも秋らしい、木の実をそのまま映したような温かみのある茶色。来年は何を染めようかなぁ。

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September 4, 2018

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. My treasure is in the ally behind my house. The end of ally is covered with invasive blackberry bush. Another invasive pokeberry plants are spreading every year in front of someone’s backyard. There used to be a ginkgo tree growing right inside of someone’s fences but they cut it down. I have picked stinky ginkgo nuts fell from the ally, roasted and eaten them. I understand the tree just makes a mess, I don’t want to own one in my property. What else? Yesterday I found Chinese Lantern plant which produces tomatillo like orange balloons. The plant is pretty popular in Japan for autumn displays. There is a comfrey plant that is supposed to be a medical plant and dyeable, makes the color green!!

I cut some blackberry tips with berries and pokeberries. The end season blackberries are drying but I didn’t care. Pokeberries were perfectly ripen, smelled so sweet though they are inedible to humans. We had bought four of new flour sack towels for kitchen. Why don’t I dye new white towels with my neighbor invasives?? I know dyers usually don’t use cotton fabric because plant based materials are not suitable for most of plant dye. I just want to experiment because I have white fabrics!

Collected blackberries and vines, pokeberries and added a couple grape leaves from my backyard. Grape leaf contains tannin, so I wondered if that works as mordant. Experiment!

Here is the instant Itajime shibori with Mason jar lid, disposable chopsticks and rubber bands.

I simmered the dye bath for an hour and left it overnight.

Clamps got rusted by 50/50 water and vinegar though it worked as iron mordant and made unique touch.

近所で摘んだベリーで板締め絞り実験。新調したキッチンタオルが真っ白だったから。あと裏道に侵略種���ブラックベリーとヨウシュヤマゴボウがもさもさ生えてるから。ベリー系は色落ちしやすいのを知っていながら、しかも殆どの草木染めには向かない木綿布での実験に、染めを促進させるタンニンを含むブドウの葉っぱを入れ、さらに板締めに使ったクランプが一晩浸けていたらお酢で酸化してしまったという、それも色の定着に繋がるかと失敗も楽しみなうち。

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August 28, 2018

Not only for beer.

I make a wreath every year with our backyard hops. This year I figured that I should remove most of leaves from vines. Hop leaves are so beautiful, wish I could conserve the shape for months but they get shrunk in a couple days (what about for dyeing??).

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Fresh Leaf Indigo Dye

August 10, 2018

After two years of failers, my indigo leaves are growing blissfully under the 90F heats. Fresh indigo dye is so easy and absolutely safe for allages.

How to dye wool yarn -

First, Scor wool yarn with dish soap while picking indigo leaves out of their stems.

Cut indigo stems a couple inches from ground so that new shoots can grow again. Picked leaves and weighted 256g. I was going to dye a skein of 100g wool yso I wanted about 400g of leaves. Well, give a try anyway!

Put the leaves and water in the blender.

It looks just like making green smoothie but more fresh leafy smell coming from the blender. Pour “indigo moothie” into a muslin bag/cheese cloth. Fresh green color turned immidiately dark, blue green. Dip the wool yarn the color turns green. Repeat dipping, taking out several times. The dye bath still looked dark enough to dip something else so I added my son’s white tanktop. As this dyeing is absolutely non toxic and safe, I was cooking dinner at the same sink!

Today I finished without rincing the yarn in the water, just squeezed the yarn and tanktop gently and dried on the clothes line outside. I will wash these materials tomorrow bacause I think this method will avoid less exceed color??

Keep the stems in the containers with water as they will root and grow more leaves!

藍の生葉染め。

3年前に初めて種から育てて葉を摘み染めた。

http://emiojcraftworks.tumblr.com/post/125231730216/since-i-started-japanese-indigo-from-seeds-41-i

その後2年、種が小さくて湿り気が足りなかったか発芽せず、やっと今年無事発芽してくれてポートランドの夏の日差しですくすく育ってます。

草木染めの定義としては、染めたい布や毛糸の4倍の量の草木が基本。しかし毛糸100gに対して葉っぱ250g余り。。仕方ない、始めちゃったから決行です！笑

土から10cmくらい残して茎を収穫。葉だけを摘んで分けて、茎は水にさすとまた根が生えてきます。

葉っぱを摘んでる間、毛糸は洗剤を入れたぬるま湯に浸します。葉と少量の水をミキサーに入れて攪拌。基本的に草木染めと料理用のキッチン用品は分けるべきですが、今回は薬品ナシ、完全に無害な藍の葉(お茶も売ってるようですよ)と水とお酢だけなので、毎朝スムージー作るミキサーで藍の葉を攪拌。夕飯の仕込みと並行しながら普段料理に使うボウルとか使っての染め。

攪拌したスムージー状の藍を(青くさ〜い香りが漂います)ガーゼの袋に入れます。ちょっとくらい漏れても気にしない。。

バケツにガーゼに入れた藍と、水を少し足して、ガーゼの袋を絞ります。そして軽くゆすいだ毛糸をイン！浸けては出すを数回繰り返します。これ以上濃くならないな、といったところで、軽く絞って乾燥。本来、水で薄めたお酢に浸けて色を定着させ濯ぐのですが、濯ぐ前に一晩乾燥させてみると色がより定着するかもと思い、濯ぐのは翌日にしました。ちなみにほかの草木染めだと、一晩染め液に毛糸を浸しておくとより色が濃くなるのですが、生葉染めに限っては長く浸けると色がくすむことがあるそうなので、ほどほどのところでキリをつけるのがポイントです。

濃い藍色も綺麗だけど、スッキリとした青緑もまた良し。まあ数日経つと酸化してもっと青に近づきますが、この色の変化もまた良し、なるがままに。

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When summer was over, I realized that we didn’t have any long pants that my son can fit. How baby grows fast! My son is tiny but his butt is puffed up with cloth diaper. I think most of baby pants are made their patterns for babies with disposable diaper on.

So here harem pants resolve it! The pattern was originally from a sewing book but I arranged the measurements all around. Added cuffs on the legs. Harem pants for active baby is so perfect! And while regular baby pants get oversize every six months or so, my son can fit them for more than one year. These pants are made out of daddy’s old T-shirts, vintage fabric, and some new ones.

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November 14, 2017

I have too many yarns to knit. I can’t be satisfied after dyeing yarns, I have to knit with them! I came across the hoodie cardigan pattern by Debbie Bliss. Pictures looked adorable on the book and mine turned out more than expected. I love the rolled raw hems, one front button, large hood, A-line shape body, everything. The wool cardigan is so warm and cozy. I’m happy to hug him (even without!;) In the last picture, I made the cardigan, pants, socks (with Regia sock yarn), bag on the couch, and the pillow in the floor. I should proud of it:)