Scrapyard Iron Plates

Inspired by beautiful rust stains on white plaster, the NUNO designers decided to see how well they could dye fabric with rust. Their initial attempts were ineffective due to the rust-retardant that is now applied to most metal. Hiroko Suwa persisted and finally developed a very labor-intensive technique that could be successfully used to pattern cloth. Working with Tomoko Sasaki, the two women sandwich two layers of cloth between well-rusted iron plates, cover them with a blanket and let them rest for two days. No two pieces are alike and the color is unique to this process.