Michael Olszewski

my work with Michael at Haystack

I had the great good fortune to spend 2 weeks studying shibori with Michael at Haystack in Summer of 2014.
































Now I am excited to see his work that is part of a textile masters show until Nov. 24th at the Snyderman -Works gallery.  It is a beautiful show.

Michael's craftsmanship is flawless but never the point of the works. All the works are evocative and satisfying. His paintings/drawings/collages are made using the visual qualities of the fabrics. Marks are created by stitching, crocheting, knitting. The works are so elegant, but again that is not the point.

Michael Olszewski, The Disturbance, Wool felt, silk, linen, metal, hand stitching, appliqué and paint, 29.625" x 29.125" (framed), 2014

Michael Olszewski, August, Silk, wool, hand-stitched and appliquéd, 23.5" x 20.25" (framed), 2015

Michael Olszewski, An Attempt, Silk, linen, hand stitching and appliqué, 23.25" x 20.25" (framed), 2013

Michael Olszewski, Lisbrin, Silk, wool, metal, hand-stitched and appliquéd, 29.625" x 29.125" (framed), 2015

Michael Olszewski, A Reminder, Silk, wool, leather, cotton, hand-stitched and appliquéd, 23.5" x 20.25" (framed), 2015

Michael Olszewski, The Return, 12"x 10", Fiber construction in crochet, applique and stitching, cotton, silk, linen, leather and metal, 2008

Second dye bath on cotton gauze

 I realized I have no images of all the pieces soaking in their second dye bath. I repositioned all the clamped resists and soaked all the pieces in a deep violet mixture of mx. I will take you through the opening of the gauze piece. Please forgive the blurry images. I was excited. This gauze took up much more blue... so it has only violet where it bled under the clamps. Perhaps it was because the silk grabbed the boysenberry in the dye mix before this cotton gauze got a chance.

clamped gauze

a few clamps removed revealing the blue green beneath the clamps

Wet and open in one direction

Fully open

So much to learn... each element creates it own pattern all of it controlled by the fold. And of course each fabric a different feel and look.

Opening the packages Hemp fold

Many of these shots are blurry. They were meant to help me remember what I did. But there is still  much to be learned from them. I tried to take a shot of each step. This first piece goes from shifting the clamps and resist piece in preparation for the second dye bath... thru to finish.

rinsed but still clamped from first dye bath

Surprise... that dark piece of plastic must have had dye on it Oops.  Reclamping for second dye bath

Opening after dyeing in deep mixed MX violet. 

Fully open

I love how the purples separate and seep into the whites.  The silk once again grabbed more of the warmer colors. It took up more yellow in the first dye bath and more boysenberry in this one. I am guessing that those colors were smaller or faster moving and the blues took their time. Look at the post on the cotton gauze to see how very different the purples are.

New Love

Me and my man. 

I made this shirt this spring using a fold that I learned at Haystack with Michael Olszewski. When I taught it to my studio assistants we called it the Michael fold.  This summer I took Elin Nobles Fold and Clamp class at Pro Chem. It was wonderful and we learned this and many other folds. Ellen calls this one formerly known as the Michael fold  the rotating square.
The dropped pattern makes this really special to me. The shirt is a mystery fabric from Jomar, but this one was dyed with acid dyes so I suspect that it is silk.




Practice makes perfect... or at least gets you going again. These are a variety of fabrics soaking to wet out. I swore that I was going to start practicing as soon as I got home from the workshop so that I would be able to cement the new folds into my repertoire. The best laid plans... it was over a month until I got back to it and it was really a challenge for me to remember. So I spent two days folding these small pieces of ( yellow, viscose) white silk , White bamboo and silk and white cotton into the hemp fold. Here they are soaking in a plastic bin to wet out.

hemp folded pieces wetting out in plastic bin.

 Each took up the color in its own way. I knew this would happen but was still surprised at how different each was. The viscose dyes beautifully and swell up more than the others. The silk grabbed much more of the yellow in this dye bath. I learned form Jan Myers Newbury that silk grabs more of the dye or takes it up more quickly and that is why in her workshop we were only allowed to work with cotton. She also had us mix certain colors and the silk would take it up differently. This was demonstrated below.

all the pieces soaking in MX mix of yellows and green.

from left, cotton gauze, cotton, silk crepe, bamboo, all were white except for the yellow viscose

I changed the placement of the resists on each piece and then overdyed them. Will post the results tomorrow.  Even though I knew intellectually that they were going to take the dye differently it still surprised me.  The cotton gauze was much bluer than the broadcloth like cotton bandana. The silk was just so much more yellow. Never a dull moment in the dye studio. 

Lemonade from Lemons

 I am aiming to record my thought and working process. I seldom start from a plan other than whether the work will be for the wall or the body. In this case I am making two tight twisted seersucker shawls.

First layer of MXdye screened on from a photo silk screen. 

this dark green will nearly disappear. Note to self avoid old dye especially in summer. 

Again the greens are going to fade to olive. 

I used different screens but the same dyes to build the two scarves. Each day I would screen and hand paint then allow the dyes to batch over night. Sometimes longer.

third layers for both scarves. 

Was quite pleased with the colors. But this was before wash out. 

Unfortunately after I washed them out I lost almost all of the deep greens. NEVER USE OLD DYE. 

So I rolled them up and over dyed using acid dyes. An exciting new approach for me.

Finished scarf.. tied. The colors were dreadful after the wash out.  So awful that I neglected to take a picture. SIGH, try to image pale but harsh colors. I had forgotten that mixed MX gets stale and loses strength quickly during a Philadelphia summer.

So it was acid dye to the rescue. This one was edge dyed by rolling it up and only dyes the outer edges. I lost the lovely orange stripes but gained some great blue depth.

Finished scarf draped you can see that the deep green of the center linear print  became an olive drab. 

Edge and dip dyed  Cabbage rose wrapped as a shawl 

 This one started with the same folded edge dyeing but I was still not happy so after creating the deeper blue edge the whole piece got dip dyed. The orginal MX printed red ( one of my favorites from the "cabbage rose series" was strong enough to hold its own against the acid dyes.
I am a real fan of edge shading /ombre and love the added depth the acid dyes created.

Wrapped as an infinity scarf

Thrown over the shoulder.