How to tell a story through fashion, craft and textiles

A very clever lady called Mandy, told me yesterday that we teach best what we most need to learn. This really resonated with me since I have a passion to help people tell their stories through fashion, textiles and crafts but I feel that for the last many years I haven’t been telling mine.

Flowers, marigold and dyers chamomile

The need to document my physical existence in this world has been a burning driving force behind my creative practice since I emigrated from my home country more than twenty years ago.  However, this has taken many different formats in terms of output. For a while there, I decided to stay home and look after my children and as I fell in love with the spontaneous and creative ways of  children’s inner world I  got immersed in children’s literature. The Saffron series  was a very happy experience which allowed me to work in different schools around New Zealand drawing,  writing, sharing stories and creating imaginary scenarios with little minds.

Sketch book, Victoria Martinez Azaro

My illustrations were obviously very much embedded of my fashion style of drawing and because I was mainly collaging and composing through mixed media I started doing the same with textiles. It was then that I became passionate in using waste to collage my everyday life with meaningful objects. The love of natural dyeing and repurposed waste expanded as the years went by and as I became more and more aware of fashion sustainability issues.

Naturally dyed yarn and work in progress, Victoria Martinez Azaro

So, as I am about to launch the first pilot of the “Travelling Sewing Box Project” in association with ALAC, in which we will create a community textile piece which will depict social narratives and memories of immigrant women in Aotearoa New Zealand, I will also be narrating my own personal stories through my textiles and will be sharing them through this blog.

Can we thread identities through colour?

As an immigrant myself I am well aware of the shifts and turns of an ongoing identity that finds its way through language structures, social behavior and a constructed understanding of what surrounds us.

 

A dislocation of the self, as painful as it may be, can also lead to a break through of the system opening up new possibilities that may lead to productive shifting mechanisms operating within our environment.

Engaging the viewer/consumer in a process of questioning and considering is what drives my interest in terms of empathy for the making. Empathy for the process, empathy for the wearer who will ultimately engage and react to the object. A visceral reaction… because it was created from a visceral set of experiences. Without a reaction from the viewer/user I believe there is no purpose to Fashion. Fashion with a purpose, Fashion made FROM empathy through its process of creation FOR the consumer/viewer/user, Fashion made to last, Fashion made to question. A piece of clothing that engages, that formulates ideas and connections and takes the consumer to a place of participation.

Any aspect of tangible Fashion starts with a thread. A thread that might become cloth, a thread that might become an embroidered embellishment, a thread that has colour, a thread that has life and means something because it was spun and dyed by someone. Who made this thread? Who coloured this thread? where does the colour come from?

Part of my studio practice is the ongoing research in terms of materials. Locality has become an important aspect of my work as I keep developing a sense of belonging within my adopted environment.  I have started a dye garden a year ago and I am producing my own colours extracting the dye from my plants. It is a rewarding and a very satisfying process which generates no toxic waste and assists me to reflect about the love and empathy I have for process.

Working in my studio threading my identity through textile narratives

 

 

 

Solar dyeing process

In her book “Slow Stitch”, Claire Wellesley-Smith, talks about the process of slow solar dyeing. Part of my slow practice has always involved dyeing, printing and painting of the textile medium, however I had never tried using solar power as the medium to fix natural dye to the fibre. As I mentioned before, my process is becoming more and more sustainable as time passes. I am now growing my own dye garden which has become a very enjoyable part of my textile process. I felt it was time to try the solar dyeing method and this is what happened:

White yarn immersed in water and 1/2 a teaspoon of allum powder and two french marigolds.

White merino yarn immersed in water with 1/2 teaspoon of allum powder and coffee grounds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yarn in coffee grounds after 5 days exposed to the sun

Yarn in French Marigold after 5 days exposed to the sun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening the jar with the marigolds for the first time after 5 days…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening the jar with coffee for the first time after 5 days…

Yarn in coffee before rinsing…

After a good rinse…marigold (left), coffee (right).

 

Blooming Dyers Chamomile

Dyers Chamomile growing beautifully in my garden – 9 weeks growth

 

My son gifted me this dyer chamomile flower this morning…it went straight into my workroom table and already can see what I am going to do with the dyed yarn I will obtain from this beautiful plant. Watch this space in “on creative process”… Purple yarn which is a mix of wool and silk has been dyed with Logwood extract. Bobbin, button and thimble belonged to my grandmas.