Rustings and Rantings

Rust Experiments Patricia Chauncey Photos Christine Hatfull

I love working with rust and other destructive textiles. Burying things that have been soda ashed and wrapped with metal bits is the best because everything surrounding the cloth is absorbed as a dye. My favourite saved objects are an old buck saw, some submarine stairs, an old barbed wire fence ball and can lids. I also haul an old rusty ladder around everywhere I end up. There are buckets of slimy water under the house holding wet, rusty metal bits.

Rust works on so many fibres. It transforms with little spots or controlled shibori patterning. The rusty objects can be clamped and wrapped or just placed on. Just soak the fabric in soda ash or not, sprinkle it with salt and add vinegar. Or just leave it soggy with the rusty bit. The longer the better. It works on cotton, silk, combination fabrics, and even on old polyester. You can even rust paper and embroidery threads.

Virginnia Baldwin, the Chair of the Vancouver Guild of Fabric Arts, once took over an old train yard with different cloths. She came back with the most extreme rusted fabrics.

There are rust patinas you can buy and these can help with a more controlled dyeing. Using them for a few runs with a silkscreen produces very controlled printing with rust. This means printing on a prerusted fabric or an otherwise destructive fabric for an incredible combination of spontaneous and controlled imagery.

Arlee Barr, the mad textile scientist, has been experimenting like crazy over the last month or so.