Joya: AiR
2023
Woven Textile Design
The project I did during the residency was an experimental process of exploring natural dyeing and weaving techniques, which I continued working with the concept of locality-focused from the thesis — Into the Skin (2021).
︎ See my story during the residency in Joya’s official site & Instagram
This was the very first residency I did in my life, and I took this chance to do a project still based on the idea of locality-focused via natural dyeing. By collecting different resources on the site, I wanted to use them to dye the yarn and then created small samples with a little frame loom I brought with me (Though the plan changed so much later on).
Working diary:
05. June (Mon.)
The yarn material was purchased in a local store when I stopped by Murcia. In the beginning, I was looking for 100% wool since I planned the dyeing process to stay as simple as possible (protein fiber is easier to process than cellulose fiber) due to time limitations, but the owner said that the weather is too hot in Murcia which is not suitable. I ended up getting a mixture of wool and acrylic. And, for the first day, I only winded the yarn into several bundles to prepare them for the following dyeing.
06. June (Tue.)
In the afternoon, I went on a walk with Lisa, a sculptor based in London to the location where she picked up the white clay for her sculptures. This is the only soil I get today despite I did another walk to a different trail. (And, I experienced serious sunburn during the night sue to this long walk; the skin of my back, arms and neck turned red and hurt quite badly.) For the dyeing, there was no recipe for me to follow what so ever, so everything is basically pure assumption and experiments. I added the soy milk as mordant in the process without any water
07. June (Wed.)
It seems the rain is going to fall the whole day, which was not supposed to happen during this time of the year. I put the yarn outside to let the rain soak them through. Instead of doing a soil hunting walk, I picked up some fallen pomegranate flowers and charcoal from burnt wood in the backyard. I used the mortar and pestle to grind the charcoal into powder, then add the hot water and soy milk to make one dye bath, and cut those flowers which the shape is like mini octopuses into small pieces to make another dye bath.
08. June (Thu.)
This morning started with finishing the burnt wood bath; though I heated the bath it still remains quite cold light grey color. I planned to go on two walks, but ended up with just one (the brownish soil) and accidentally slept through another one, then suddenly realized doing art is actually a physically-consuming process.
09. June (Fri.)
Today, I started with the pine cone hunting and picked up some yellow flowers, which I believe are a kind of chrysanthemum growing everywhere around this area along the way. Both dye baths smelled very nice and rich; kind of like the oil for the scent machine(?), and both gave out quite nice results despite not leaving the yarns overnight.
10. June (Sat.)
I had a scheduled presentation to all artists and hosts about my work this evening, and I was expected to at least weave something to show everybody during the presentation, but building the loom itself took up so much time, that I could not start my weaving before that though I spent the whole afternoon on this.
The loom itself (which works in a way) missed some function and something was wrong but I did not know how to fix or improve it. The warp was tied on the sticks I picked up from the surrounding area, and the chair and the thing for placing wood in the fireplace were the two things keeping the warp in tension. During the presentation, people were quite impressed by my self-made loom surprisingly and many of them took pictures of it. I think maybe is because I was the only one with a textile background, and not so often for them to see real-life loom (and also, it was a very unique one).
11 ~ 12. June (Sun. & Mon.)
The weaving part in a way was quite intuitive, and I already had a vision in mind that the warp and the base (main wefts) will be made by the yarns with warm color shades, and the accent colors (cold yellow & grey) will be floating through the warp organically. I was thinking to do a proper photoshoot with Ana, the painter based in London before the residency ended, but in the end, I did not have the time for that. I stayed up until midnight to finish the piece before my departure.
Reflection
Back when I started to develop my thesis in 2021, I had the plan to travel around countries and explore natural dyeing techniques by collecting color samples from different environments (cities), which was interrupted by the global pandemic. This “Natural dyeing map” concept was to emphasize local resources/networks, environment, and culture via textile design. However, I didn’t realize I was doing exactly the project I wanted to do when one of my fellow students/friends from Aalto reminded me, and this was something I was very happy about because everything seems to come to a full circle.
Yet, as always, I was not 100% pleased with my final output (due to my personality); though I did my best to achieve what I wanted to do in the beginning, I still tend to think about what I could have done more to improve for the better. However, the most valuable part of my stay here during the residency is that it helped me to set up a new goal and re-boost my mentality. I was in such a confused position where I am not sure if I have chosen the right path to go with my life, but somehow, the small project I did here once again proved that I love creating via whatever means.
Process Photographer & Editor: Yun-Jung Hsieh
Textile Photographer & Editor: Ana Teles