Yuzen

Kyo-Yuzen is another resist dye technique, originating in Kyoto in the late 1700s. The resist dye techniques from Japan were influenced by Indias Batik, which moved to China before Japan. The difference is the use of rice paste as glue instead of wax. Yuzen can be done in different ways, but the way I am learning here is a process of making a stencil, brushing chemical dye in a gradient through the stencil. Then printing a layer of coloured glue through the stencil, to protect the dye and also colour the lighter parts, then finally brush on the background dye. I feel this is going to be more difficult than Katazome and I will need to be quite careful and considered.

PICS OF DRAWINGS

We began by doing observational drawing of objects from our bags, I like prefer drawing objects so enjoyed these lessons, I used different black pens and pencil, then I refined my drawing to be appropriate for a stencil. They have to be blocky and without parts that will be too flimsy.

This is my final stencil, I don’t love it but think its quite fun and quirky. I tried some more abstract designs, but as it is going to be repeated four times in a larger square, I could make one that would look effective in this context.

My colour reference images – love how the subtle colours of a grapefruit are similar to many colours that I notice around Japan – on buildings, signs, bottle crates.

Colour I extracted from my photos using Adobe Colour.

Final colour scheme I will use for the shapes dye. I want to use darker colours as I think the background will come out quite light.