Indigo Flower

Ally Kraus

Interview by L. Valena
February 9, 2024

Can you please start by describing the prompt that you responded to?

It was a line drawing of a woman in the fetal position, and then superimposed over that was a conch shell.

What were your first thoughts and feelings?

I loved the image, but I was taken aback that it was monochrome. I often play with color in my work and didn’t know where to start without a color palette to play off of.

What happened next?

I stared at the image for a couple of days and jotted down ideas. For such a simple drawing, there were so many different directions I could go! The image felt very personal; she seemed both defenseless but protected by the shell. I also loved the form, the lines, the layering of similar but different shapes, and the geometry of the shell. That latter part was what I really gravitated towards and what I decided to start from.

How did you decide how you would move forward?

I do a lot of work with layers in my art. I'm a textile artist. I weave, sew, and dye. Layers are especially important in weaving. You have these warp and weft threads, these perpendicular threads that interlace with each other, which gives you two layers to apply surface design on. But my looms were all taken up with projects, so I decided to do something related to sewing.

I had this idea in the back of my head about using silk organza as part of a piece. It's a fabric that's see-through, but also dyes well, and I thought it would be interesting to play with. I haven't ever layered fabric before, but I started thinking about how to have two images on two different pieces of fabric that you could layer and see how they combine.

Cool! So how did you make this piece?

This is two separate layers of fabric, a cotton layer (which is not see-through) and then silk organza which is layered over the top. Both of them have been shibori dyed in indigo. Shibori is kind of like tie-dyeing, but a lot more varied than how you think about American tie-dye. The technique I use is called Itajime shibori, which is where you take shaped resists, and you kind of make a sandwich with your fabric. The resists are the bread, and the fabric is folded up and clamped between them. Then you dip it in a dye vat, and anything that is not covered by those shapes takes on the color of the dye.

I knew I wanted to play with this, and I've never worked with organza before. So I made four different set ups, put them in the dye bath, and saw how they looked. Initially I was thinking of layering a couple of these transparent pieces, but that didn't work out so well. So I used some shibori dyed cotton and linen I had made last year and put it together with the new pieces I just dyed. I played with them until I found the combination I liked the best.

I love hearing that this idea is something that's been kind of rattling around in your head. Did you make those plexi resists for this purpose?

Yes! I am lucky to have access to a maker space, Maker Nexus, which has amazing tools to play with like laser cutters. It's been super fun to use these non-textile tools to push my textile art in new directions. I can make standard shibori shapes like squares and circles, but also stars and moons and anything you can think of. I love Itajime shibori because you can really play with geometry. You can use different shapes, fold your fabric in different ways, and position the shape in different places on the fabric. You get a different pattern each time and you're never quite sure what it will look like until it comes out. Things always get unpredictable in the dye bath. This is a call and response publication, but I think my work is also very much like that. I kind of know where I'm going but am very open to iteration as the project progresses.

I love it! I've never heard of anyone using a laser cutter for shibori dyeing before! That's so cool.

The maker space feels like such a natural fit for me. When I first heard about it, I didn’t think it was for me. I have most of the textile tools I need in my house. But I love going there and seeing the possibilities, learning how to use these new tools, and then keeping them at the back of my mind for when ideas come up.

Can you talk a little bit more about how this relates to the rest of your work?

My work involves various dyeing and resist techniques. One of my favorites is called Ikat, where you tie-dye yarn before you weave it. You do it in a precise way in order to make intentional patterns that appear when you weave the yarn into cloth. I like to be playful and irreverent with it. I've done Ikat pieces that used the silhouette of my cat, or a plastic bag blowing in the wind. It's very time-consuming but also satisfying when you see the finished design at the end.

Lately I've been really into weaving a piece of plain white cloth, and then applying some sort of surface design to it, by dyeing it or using a garment printer at the maker space. Then I'll unweave it and reweave it in a different way to mix up the patterns. I've done that kind of layering and mishmash in weaving before, but this is the first time I've done that on the fabric side of things. It was really fun and something I want to continue pushing forward.

It's always exciting to hear that something has opened up a new line of inquiry. Do you think you'll do more like this?

Oh yeah, for sure. I think I'll do more layering with the silk organza, but I also want to go forward and make more textile sketches where I just play with the materials I have on hand to see what happens, using all of these materials that I've made and have been stockpiling, and figuring out how I can combine them to make interesting and beautiful things.

How did you get into this?

I don't know exactly – I’m a voracious learner, and I see where things take me. Maybe fifteen years ago, I got this idea in my head that I wanted to sew, who knows why. I took a sewing class, and got really into it. I started sewing clothes, and the more I sewed, the more I became interested in cloth. So I started weaving. And then I got into surface design on cloth, so I started dyeing. I even grew my own dye garden last year. I'm just the sort of person who likes to understand how things work, and I'm very curious. I like to see where my interests take me, and try not to push myself in a specific direction. I just see what evolves naturally. I can't really tell you what specifically got me into this, but I just love textiles. I want to acquire all skills, and it's my goal to learn everything about everything.

I fully relate to that. It's hard to stop once you discover the possibilities, in any direction of the world. There's so much to learn!

I know! And I have friends who despair over the idea that they'll never have time to do all of the things they want to do. But to me that's really exciting, because it means I'll never be bored.

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

I think just be open to it, and use it as a chance to try something new that you've been wanting to try. Even though it's going to be in a publication, it's a relatively low-stakes, playful environment. That's what I love about it. Sometimes there's this kind of gated feeling about what art is, and how to be an artist, and I just love the direction people take things in this project. My advice is to try not to take yourself too seriously, and experiment and explore and see what happens. Two weeks isn't a long time, but it's long enough to get lost on some tangents and make something really interesting by the end.

Call Number: M89VA | V91VA.kraIndi

Ally Kraus is a textile artist and instructional designer based in San Jose, CA. She weaves on hand looms, pieces and sews cloth, dyes fabric and yarn, and grows her own dye plants. Her goal in life is to acquire all skills – one she will happily never achieve!