Lee Love on wed 20 sep 00
really....: Re: Oil rag (was: whether Picassso "Kirbies"...)
----- Original Message -----
From: Janet Kaiser
>Was it blue Nina? Or at least predominantly
>blue? A lot of bad art sells because of this
>redeeming feature! Come to think on it, wasn't
>PP partial to blue? Blue and white?
Actually, I started using blue in my work in reaction to most
serious potter's reaction against it. :^) But all my Blues, in the
past, have come from iron or copper. I have a strontium copper glaze that
can be shiny or mat or crystalline and , red, green, blue, pink or oxblood.
I modified it from a barium blue.
Indigo is my favorite fabric color. On my last visit to Japan, I
was fitted for an indigo Samue (sp) (monks' work cloths) at the Indigo shop
Aizen, in Kyoto. This family shop used to make obe, but when kimonos
went out of style, the business started going down the tubes. Kanjiro
Kawaii was a friend of the owner of this shop at the time and told the
craftsman, that he should learn indigo dying, because the craft was
disappearing and maybe he could make a living from it and save the knowledge
to boot. The craftsman made the switch and was successful.
My Samue was expensive: being double dyed (first, the thread is
dyed and then the whole fabric) and hand sewn (I used the profits of a
show I was in, in Japan at the time) but it is a cherished set of clothing.
One of my earliest memories is the smell of indigo dye. My
Japanese grandmother used to wear indigo and she must have worn a new kimono
when she took care of me as a baby. My other earliest memory is the smell
of Sumi-e ink. My grandfather was a painter and calligrapher. I have
his painting of Daruma and calligraphy he painted in my computer room. It
says, "Seven Times Down, Eight Times Up!" It is my life's motto.
--
Lee Love
Mashiko JAPAN Ikiru@kami.com
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