Discover the ancient art of katazome by Karen Illman Miller
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rt quilters today use many surface design techniques to produce patterned fabrics. Discharge, silk screen, and shibori are techniques recognized by most artists and their customers. I, however, am the happy practitioner of a much less well-known process: the art of Japanese stencil dyeing known as katazome. Katazome is an ancient textile art that has been practiced in Japan for hundreds of years. Originally made for summer kimono or for futon covers and other household items, katazome fabrics were dyed in indigo. Traditional katazome have repeating patterns, often
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of great delicacy. Before the advent of synthetic dyes, all fabrics in Japan were produced using natural dyes or mineral pigments with a soy milk binder. Although synthetic dyes are now the norm for katazome in Tokyo and Kyoto, the Okinawans continue to use the old techniques to produce their own form of katazome, called bingata. This process, using natural dyes and pigments, has become my passion. As a beginning quilter 17 years ago, I found katazome when I had the good fortune to take a local workshop given by a Japanese indigo dyer. He taught us how to cut a stencil, and from that
moment I knew that this was what I was meant to do. I have been finding my own voice as a katazome artist since studying with American katazome master John ÂMarshall. Katazome is no longer limited to traditional indigos. It can be used in a fairly easy one-step process to produce multicolored cottons, linens, and silks, using a variety of fabric dyes and textile paints. By protecting dyed areas with paste and then layering stencils, artists can produce fabWinterlight Karen Miller Each panel 35 x 15 inches 2008
