Deep and Wide: Elin Noble’s Hand Dyes

Elin, your creative sensibility is unique; you definitely have carved out your own space in the world of fiber arts.  What are the inspirations for your work? 

My inspiration comes from actively observing the natural world: shadows, clouds, plants, insects, and things growing – especially when viewed from unusual angles.  Another area of inspiration comes from architecture, theater, opera, dance and circus, most recently from artists such as the architect Gordon Bunshaft, the choreographer Pina Bausch, the theater directors Robert Wilson and Peter Sellers, the video artist Bill Viola, the sculptor Richard Serra, and the alternative circus group Seven Fingers.

 What surfaces in my artwork is the essence of a feeling: joy, beauty, wit, seduction, and sensuality. I enjoy visual ambiguity, the reading of things that appear to float and defy gravity, engaging the viewer in a visual dance.

Tell us about your material and methods. 

My most recent work uses fiber reactive dyes and thiourea dioxide on cellulose: cotton, linen, rayon, bamboo, hemp, and any blend of plant derived cloth.

I sometimes think of myself as an archeologist, discovering layers of stratification.  My approach to itajime shibori, or clamp-resist dyeing, involves layering pattern by adding and subtracting color repeatedly, leaving hints and marks of what was there before. This method of dyeing allows me to juxtapose the soft and hard edges I like, revealing an unexpected dance of solid and diffused contours. In the dyeing process, shapes and shadows are left on the fabric creating an overall pattern and symmetry.

What is your creative process like?

I love being in the studio. I tend to proceed without a set idea in mind.  The folds, scale, colors that I use, and the type of cloth, are all determined as I work.  It is the process I challenge myself with.  For eight months I worked with only two basic shapes, a square and a rectangle.  I wanted to explore specific parameters.  I love complexity.  I add and subtract layers of color many times: dye, subtract, dye, subtract, dye, again, and again, and again.  Sometimes I work up to 30 layers of color on one piece of cloth. Some pieces I like immediately and feel resolved within a week, while others I work on for a number of months.

What drew you to working with fiber?

It seems to me that cloth actually chose me.  My Mother was always sewing, so I learned to sew at an early age. First I made stuffed animals, dozens of them. I had a little business selling them to family friends. The next step in really learning how to sew was under duress, because the clothes I wanted to wear were too expensive to buy ready-made, but not too expensive to make. I learned quickly how to sew and started embroidering on all my clothes, first by hand, and then by machine. It was around 1980 I started working full time with stitching and dyeing and have continued to learn and experiment ever since. 

What are you working on now?

Right now I am working on a piece measuring 144 inches by 102 inches. It is a whole cloth quilt. Much of my recent work involves quilting on my dyed cloth, in particular one piece of cloth as the quilt top, not a pieced top. In itajime shibori, clamp-resist dye, the cloth and quilt with thread I dye to coordinate and contrast with the dye work. I approach the stitching as a drawing, which brings a new energy to the cloth. The scale is different from the dye work, and I push nuances of color harmonies against one another to make the surface vibrate and dance.

Describe any cultural or historic techniques you use in your artistic process. 

As a clamp-resist artist, my initial exposure was through Barbara Goldberg. She sat me down in a big overstuffed chair, and each time she walked by she delivered another piece of cloth, book, or photo into my lap to devour. Barbara introduced me to a new visual poetry, and I latched onto Yoshiko Wada’s Shibori book to learn the process. Historically, the clamp-resist process is thousands of years old and is still practiced in many cultures worldwide. It is a straight forward process embracing simplicity, elegance, dexterity, and complexity.

How do you see your art evolving in the future?

I never know what will inspire me next.  I recently made a piece out of seaweed.  For a while I have been collecting and drying mushrooms.  I love them in their shriveled sculptural state and I don’t know yet how they will manifest themselves in my work.  Recently I experienced Richard Serra’s sculptures and I’m still dreaming of how I felt as I walked through their tilted corridors. 

Within the next week or two I will have my online store functioning, selling hand-dyed thread and clamp dyed pieces. These are appropriate for quilters and makers of garments. In the coming year I am teaching at Quilting by the Lake in upstate NY and through a few quilt guilds. All this is listed on my website www.elinnoble.com. This past summer I moved my studio. I love the big bright tall ceiling room and I am eager to spend more time working in the new space, doing dye work and quilting. I know the new studio will affect my work, time will illustrate where my surroundings take me.

Thank you for your thoughtful replies, Elin.  Stop by Elin's website to see more samples of her gorgeous work.

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