About this Event
Japanese kimono and domestic textiles have been produced with paper stencils for five hundred years. Oregon artist Karen Miller has been studying, collecting, making, and using them for 25 years. She will discuss their history, the tools and techniques used to make them, and the varied ways they have been employed. She will connect traditional stencil processes with her own work, sharing examples of historic and modern textiles as well as many examples of these beautiful stencils. The virtuosity and creativity of the Japanese stencil carvers were recognized once Japan opened to the West and influenced European art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Katagami (pattern paper) are made from layers of kozo (paper mulberry) laminated with kakishibu and smoked. Kakishibu is the tannic fermented juice of green persimmons, used in Japan for paper lamination, waterproofing, as a wood preservative, and a dye. The resultant fragrant paper, when soaked in water before use, becomes leathery, flexible, and tough. Despite their apparent fragility, stencils are a durable tool which can be used many times to apply rice paste resist to fabric before dyeing it. The nature of the resist paste is such that unbelievably fine stenciled dots and lines still give clearly defined designs on fabric. Once the dyeing is completed, the resist is easily removed in warm water. Stencils are cut with knives, punches, and other specialized tools. They can be used directly for small patterns. Larger patterns with more open designs are too fragile to be used directly, so they are reinforced with silk threads or mesh. Some of them are works of art in themselves.
Artist’s Biography - Karen Illman Miller
Karen Miller was born in Oakland, CA. She was a marine biologist before becoming an expert on katazome, the art of Japanese stencil dyeing. Using her own hand-cut stencils to apply a resist paste, she produces fabric for art quilts, as well as silk garments, linen hangings, and indigo-dyed cottons. Her work has been exhibited twice in Japan, is in numerous private and public collections, and was hung in the Washington D.C. office of Jane Lubchenco, the head of NOAA in the first Obama administration. She has taught katazome nationally and internationally and has published several articles. She was featured on Oregon Art Beat, OPB TV in October 2007.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Textile Hive HQ, 133 SW SECOND AVENUE SUITE 430, PORTLAND, United States
USD 0.00