When silk meets ramie

Silk and raime saori clothRamie and silk wovenI’ve just finished some wraps with intermittent warp kasuri on a hand painted silk warp and mostly natural dyed ramie. The natural dyes are Sumi, Persimmon and Bengara. In some ways its a piece which I am most pleased with because it ticks a few boxes of what I have wanted to achieve. Firstly I wanted a light yet crisp fabric, which is better for the climate here than wool. I also wanted a natural and muted blend of unexpected shades throughout the whole piece which worked well using the naturally dyed ramie. The whole weave is very Saori  using what reminds me of Klee like shapes yet also  the placement of the beach stones in strong wind or embedding with the tides. Pretty fancy inspiration collection! Well no. I just think about whatever at the time and sort of put them together unlike the rest of the art/craft world with artistic statements of intent and full follow through!  It’s nice to be happy with the result though.

Saori inlay
silk Inlay shapes

8 thoughts on “When silk meets ramie

  • February 15, 2015 at 7:32 pm
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    Gorgeous! I would love to see more closeups and perhaps you could tell us a little bit more about the weaving techniques you used to get that kind of look? I get, how you did that silky inlay you showed us a closeup of, but did you use the same technique for the round shaped spot in the first picture? Is it surrounded by a silk inlay?

  • February 15, 2015 at 7:50 pm
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    Veronika
    The weave is plain but the silk warp was handpainted and tied in places. The inlay was plain weave inlay and I used this technique for the circles too. The circles aren’t perfect though but thats how I like to weave them. I also used some specific Saori techniques within the placement of the inlay to create textures inside the woven inlay circles.

  • February 16, 2015 at 4:19 pm
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    Thank you! Do these specific techniques only work with saori looms?

  • February 17, 2015 at 5:14 am
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    Absolutely beautiful Kaz! The colours are wonderful

  • February 17, 2015 at 8:42 am
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    Thanks Gail!
    Veronika, The techniques I’ve used here can be used on any loom as with any of them. It’s just that some techniques use quick loom modifications which are simple on the Saori loom because of its design .

  • February 17, 2015 at 11:32 am
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    Hi Kaz, this is really beautiful and I love the softness but strength of the colours . The wrap also looks perfect for our climate…..I’ve never woven with Ramie but I now want to give it a go. Thanks for your constant inspiration!

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