While I was at the Asian Art Museum, I flipped through a book titled Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now. It had a number of techniques involving silk, but what was really interesting was the section on polyester! It turns out that you can steam-set polyester into permanent creases, and you can also dye it with disperse dyes. Mind you, disperse dyes are a pain to work with and generally come with some rather noxious carriers (one more outdoor project for that camp stove I don’t yet own), but I’ve seen some beautiful scarves done that way. I just didn’t know how to do them before. Now, of course, I’m regarding polyester fabrics with a new eye–I had despised them previously as being unfit for most fiber arts, but…hmm.
Some other small tidbits:
- Tonight I’m going to the East Bay poly potluck, where I will hopefully have a chance to talk to my friend who does fashion design. (And meet other poly folk, of course.)
- It looks like Lena (my friend the translator for the Tibetan lama) is not coming to stay with me after all–she’s going to stay in the East Bay. I’m disappointed, but I will get to have dinner with her from time to time (while she’s visiting), so that’s something.
- I’m shocked by the military coup in Thailand. While I won’t pretend to a deep knowledge of Thailand, I did spend two months there while traveling (see my travel photos if you don’t believe me 🙂 ), and the idea of martial law and military coups just seems…wrong. Granted that this appears to have been a bloodless one, still, I had thought of Thailand as a more stable country. I hope things remain (relatively) calm there. I liked the country and hate to think of it in turmoil.
- I’ve discovered that looms are available on Craigslist! (Okay, *everything* is available on Craigslist, but still.) I’m keeping my eye out for a cheap 8-harness Baby Wolf, that being the only loom small enough to fit into my apartment without having to evict something else. I doubt I’ll find one (thankfully), but you never know.
