Summary

I am a Dyer, Fibre Artist and Tutor specializing in the traditional Japanese Arts and Craft of Shibori and Indigo dyeing, combined with modern techniques including Felting creating original individual Wearable Art, Visual Art, Sculptures and Quilts showcasing Australia with stories of past and present in an endeavor to portray work uniquely original and Australian.

Bringing together old Japanese Shibori techniques with the marvelous colours of the Australian outback, fauna and flora, I create kimono, hanten jackets, caftans, evening wraps and scarfs designed to flatter the body, soft to touch and special to wear. All washable items.

Organisation

The Dyeshack

Team

Maureen Locke-Maclean works as a textile fibre artist, lecturer, educator and tutor from her studio ‘The Dyeshack” at Wamberal on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

Her works have been featured in numerous textile related publications including Craft Art International, Hunter Lifestyle, Textile Fibre Forum, Embellish, Fibreline and Yomiuri Newspaper Tokyo.

Maureen specializes in the ancient art of Japanese Shibori which allows her to stitch, bind and compress silk and natural fabric. The actual design is created within the compressions before dyeing in Natural Indigo or Acid Steam set dyes. Depending on the temperature and immersion times during the dyeing process, precision of stich, it is only when the fabric is unbound that success or failure of the design reveals itself.
Her current work is exploring two and three dimensional works with synthetic fabric featuring Jellyfish, Seaweeds and creatures of our Barrier Reef for a forthcoming exhibition. ‘Reef Dreamscapes’.

Her work has been sold and exhibited nationally and internationally in Australia, U.S.Virgin Islands, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.

Inspiration/Method

Touring Japan in 1985 I was mesmerized with Japanese Indigo Dyers their ancient dyeing techniques creating magical cloth by the process of Shibori. The Dyeshack was registered in 1991 where I taught Silk Painting, and Batik. I commenced Japanese lessons and tried to gather as much information as I could then in 1997 I returned to Japan with the Multi Arts Confederation on a Cultural Exchange on classes Caligraphy, Origami, Katazome and a Master Class with Matsubara Senshoku Indigo Dyer. I have been working with these techniques using inspiration from the natural landscapes and features of Australia. I read once “People who get all of their information from books end up with a strange view of life. They have read the map but have not visited the city, they know the right noises, yet they can do few of the right things.” Academic knowledge alone is not of much interest even though it means finding things out the hard way, I like to speak from experience. One has to understand Shibori comes from the heart not the head so the journey continues.

Design Challenge

Not to let the beautiful ancient textile craft methods go into ‘oblivion’ because creative and original art not only takes time it also retains its’ beauty, integrity and honesty of endeavor and these traditions need to be passed onto the younger generation. Because ‘everything old becomes new again’.
The general majority of the market wants “instant everything” but it has very little staying power turning into a ‘disposable item’ to last one season.
The challenge must be to keep these beautiful arts alive and developing techniques to keep abreast with the new materials and machinery becoming available.