Weather: sunny, windy, cold
Song: Nirvana- About a Girl
Taste: black coffee
Bleach:
A brilliant album.
What we do to our hair in LA in 2014.
The smell of the YMCA in the morning.
Crisp white t-shirts and a leather jacket.
Oat milk latte. And… a fashion statement?
The scene, rebel DIY kid:
Cranking whatever depressing 90s album I was into at the time (in this case, Nirvana’s “Bleach” works wonderfully) in my mom’s unfinished (and haunted!) basement with one of those thick, cumbersome clear plastic shower curtains spread out on the battered concrete floor. I carefully lay all my t-shirts out flat, fill up a random Tupperware with Clorox, and go to town, spattering bleach all over them, adding in the random flick of the wrist for extra dramatic splash.
After some serious bleaching has been done, my mom smells the bleach from a mile away… she has the nose of a hunting dog, but only for household cleaning products being used outside of their designated purpose. She descends the stairs and asks, in disbelief, why ON EARTH I’m not wearing a mask or glasses to protect my lungs and eyes. I have no answer, other than that I simply did not care. As a teenager, I was indestructible, of course!
Fast forward two decades…
Satori : the idea strikes!
The idea to do bleach art again had been rolling around in the back of my mind for a while. And on a recent trip to Paris, while catching up with a talented jewellery designer and long-time friend, I had my satori. I’d been struggling with designer’s block, trying to dig a new perspective to get some creativity sparked again. As I stared at the oat milk swirling in my latte, only half-listening, he suggested I add bleach to my clothing painting, since I’m already doing spray painting. The vegetable milk spiralled out lazily as though scrawling a design on a fresh black cotton canvas… something clicked, and the next day I busted out the l’eau de javel again.
The Process: Getting the goods.
Over the years I have been no stranger to using harsh chemicals in my various artistic endeavours. Paint thinner, spray paint, terpenoids, varnishes, and acetones have all passed through my creative life, and I’ve learned the importance of PPE (personal protective equipment) and now highly recommend that people always practice safety first!
Of course, when I decided to start working with bleach again, I chose to be on the safe side. I mask up, don glasses, and make sure I have some good rubber gloves. I also have a handy flannel (same one I use to dye my hair) to protect my arms in case of splashing. Next, I have to choose my fabric. To make the denim bags currently available in my online shop, I chose a gorgeous 100% cotton denim that I got from a deadstock retailer in Italy. This fabric is double awesome because it’s deadstock, which makes it a more sustainable fabric choice, and it’s got this rugged black tone that gives it a worn look reminiscent of your favourite faded black jeans.
The Process: Bleaching
First, I pre-wash the fabric and hang it to dry. I never use a dryer machine because those are blasphemy when you’re using natural fibres, and the planet.
For the actual bleaching, I filled a clean hair dye bottle with bleach, and after the first few random squirts of bleach, I found the lift was absolutely divine. This particular denim gives a crisp, clean line with perfect contrasts of an almond cream white lift through the black jean roughness. I also did tie-dying and some crinkling and dipping techniques, which gave really unique shapes and perspectives to the fabric.
As a writerly person, I also felt the urge to write something, to leave my message in some way.
Two phrases I used on the two new bags:
“Music is the only truth” - Jack Kerouac
- This resonates with me, because when I am feeling down, re-reading one of my favourite books ever, On The Road, always somehow makes me feel better. Nothing a sweaty jazz club and some adventuring can’t fix!
“Love You”
- I wrote this as a command. You must LOVE YOU! If you are always looking for love externally, you will always be disappointed, because other hearts have only some to give. You have ALL within you already. So, yes, you can love yourself, because you are the love you seek and the love you give. Once I finished bleaching, I did another wash of the fabric, to remove all chemical residue and so it smells like fresh-washed linen on a spring day, and not like the YMCA swimming pool in July. Then, I got to work sewing, pressing seams, measuring pockets and straps, and choosing a nice anthracite cotton blend for the lining. The result was two new bags.
Not only bags, though. They were my symbolic sailing through to the other side of a creative doldrum where I had sunk into routine fog and grey stagnancy. Two little carriers of inspiration, a nod to nostalgic DIY design, and repurposing the everyday into art.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my first blog!
Blog II - out next week: Four books that inspired four different Vampire Sun Couture pieces.