I created a Bojagi piece using my color range of Cochineal at various tannin and mordant steeping times & ferrous sulfate color shifts on handwoven linen.
I love how the light shines through this piece. The linen has such a depth, and it absorbs the color with beautiful highs and lows of tone.
The pattern is a quilters log house pattern. I used my darkest tone of ferrous shifted Cochineal and worked my way through all 4 of the ferrous shifted pinks before switching to their un shifted counterparts, reversing from lightest pink to my strongest pink.
It’s fascinating to work with natural dyes and see how factors like the amount of dye material or the amount of steeping times of dyes/tannins/mordants can vastly change the color. This pieces gives me a map of process, and is a diary of months of dye experiments.
I learned the Bojagi sewing techniques from Bojagi: The Art of Korean Textile By Youngmin Lee. The book is a wonderful addition to my textile book collection, and a love letter to her culture, heritage, and family.
The hand sewing is a laborious process, but Youngmin shared the practice of making a wish for someone else with every stitch. As I worked through this piece, thoughts of the people I love were in my mind. Not just people still alive, but also those who have passed. I recalled times from my childhood, family events, romances that one burned brightly, and My dearest loves that I hold close to me now.
I look forward to exploring this process more in my studio work. It’s a wonderful way to use the large array of natural dyed textiles I’ve been developing, through silent contemplation and love.
