I seldom use knitting yarns when I knit. Instead I mostly use yarns that are normally used for weaving in textile factories. My products are made from a variety of materials. Silk is the main material, but I also use hemp, wool, cotton and other kinds of material. They are all grown naturally, in one way or another. They give the work an abundance of colour. This is due to their inherent characteristics. When I use silk and hemp together with artificial metal dyes, there is an apparent difference between the two. Silk is an animal fiber and dyes well, but hemp is a plant fiber that scarcely takes dye at all. I use whatever materials are best suited to provide the colours I want.
My works are made up of two or more kind of threads. Silk is solid but mohair feels soft when touched. Each thread has a particular texture. I also use coarse and fine threads together. Many kinds of thread can form into infinitely complex structures which can have the effect of dimming a colour. They are tie-dyed after knitting. While knitting I try hard to echo the swells and bumps that result from the tie-dye process. I use a hand-knitting machine for this. One of my fundamental aims is to bring "Deko-Boko" to my works. The overall form is composed of several small pieces. Some are long and thin, some rectangular and others triangular. Each of them is tie-dyed once more and reassembled into the final shape. This is how I go about matching my works to the image I had in my mind. |