Featured Artist : Sarah DesmaraisSarah Desmarais Textiles

Sarah Desmarais is a textile designer-maker using the techniques of traditional Japanese katazome. Katazome (or stencil dyeing) is a centuries-old method of printing on cloth using paper stencils and a rice paste resist in combination with indigo or synthetic dyes. In Sarah’s work, these techniques are in dialogue with her own language of design, rooted in drawing and mark-making in a variety of wild and weathered coastal landscapes: ‘When working outside, I like to respond to my sensory impressions in an intuitive way. I follow rather than direct the materials and see drawings as things that emerge from interactions between multiple elements including wind, waves, birdsong, ink, water, paper, and hands. I intend my drawings, designs, and textiles to be expressions of the material world rather than responses to it’.

Sarah runs regular online katazome workshops that attract participants from the US, Europe, and elsewhere. Participants are introduced to the history of the technique and shown ways of designing successfully for the medium. They then use traditional Japanese stencil paper (made with sheets of mulberry paper that have been laminated with fermented persimmon juice and then smoked to become waterproof) to hand-cut stencils from their own designs. These are used to print a repeat pattern onto silk, using a traditional rice paste resist made from sweet rice flour and rice bran. When the resist is dry, the fabric is dyed, and then washed out to reveal a white pattern on a coloured ground. Participants receive in advance a materials kit including Japanese stencil paper, rice paste resist, dye and silk. Sarah’s next one-day online workshop is on Saturday 20th March and will be live on the Japan Society events page shortly.