Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Rowland Ricketts in Toronto

 I spent Sunday with Rowland Ricketts.
 He was in Toronto for five days and the last day was a master class.
The images in this post show his work with stitch resist (above) and rice paste resist (below)
Click here to read Rowland's inspiring story.
Rowland's wife Chimani, wove the 13 metres of 14" wide cotton kimono cloth shown above.
He dyed it with stitch resist.
We learned some of his techniques for stitch resist during the workshop.
Rowland Ricketts is pictured above in front of my stitch resist learning sample
Rowland's teaching sample with the studio's irons
The smell of an indigo vat just as it begins fermenting and springs to life is one of ripeness, a moment of rich potentiality when, as a maker, I momentarily stand between the history of the materials and processes that helped me get the indigo thus far and the promise of all the work that the vat is still yet to realize.  Rowland Ricketts 
I am aware of a connection that leads not just from my teachers to me, but one that reaches back to my teacher's teachers and the people they learned from, back into a past in which the processes I uses were developed through the accumulated experiences of all who have ever worked with this unique dye.   Rowland Ricketts. 

13 comments:

Ms. said...

INDIGO !!! Yum.

Caterina Giglio said...

wow, wow, wow... just staring, mouth open... xox

Kathy -MIQuilter said...

I would have loved to be in that class! I'm sure you excelled with your beautiful hand work.

Mo Crow said...

such rich deep blues

Cate Rose said...

Magnificent indigo shibori!

Sue McQ said...

Oh my goodness, Judy...beyond words. These are indigo dreams.

susan hemann said...

thank you so much for introducing me to Roland! love indigo, your piece is stunning, I'll bet it was fun

Roxanne said...

Roland has been my Indigo guru for some time, using his seeds to grow my own in 2015, bringing his work in touch with the deep blue history of South Carolina. Thank you for sharing, Judy.

Carol Wiebe said...

Just wow. I’m with Caterina. Mouth open, eyes open, mind cracked open . . . again.

jude said...

I should take example and get more serious.

Velma Bolyard said...

ah, thank you for this vicarious learning. so glad.

Michelle Sirois Silver said...

Thanking for sharing your
workshop experience. The images are beyond beautiful and defy description. Made my day.

Impresariat muzyczny Polisound said...

So very nice post :)