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Please contact us with inqueries about licensing our technology or purchasing one-of-a-kind bracelets or monoprints at info@hesperidesresearch.com

About the Founders

Joan Morris

Joan Morris began making shaped-resist dyed (shibori*) texiles in 1983, the same year that marked her beginning to work as master-dyer for the theatre department at Dartmouth College, where she continues to work. She has dyed the textiles for over 60 productions there. Joan began teaching shibori in 1989. She teaches internationally to adults, as well as to children in the schools of the northeastern United States. She has been working on the creation of a merger of painting, printing, erasing, gilding and shaped-resist dyeing since 1995. In 1996 she completed a shibori project for the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory of The US Army Corps of Engineers. This project, 5 years in progress, involved the translation of four remote sensed (data collected by satellite) images of environmental significance into imagery using stitched, pole wrapped and capped shaped-resists, as well as newly invented forms. An image from this series was selected as the cover art for Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now by Yoshiko I. Wada (Kodansha International, 2002). In 1997 she designed the textiles for a scene in Julie Taymor's "The Lion King". Since then she has fabricated the textiles for its international and road productions. Her textiles have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has been an invited panelist and presenter of her textiles and her work in the field of textile modification for theatre at international symposia in Europe and Asia.

* The Japanese word "shibori" means to compress, or to squeeze. Shibori is a 1400-year-old Japanese shaped-resist dyeing process whereby cloth is shaped by stitching, folding, wrapping or pleating, and bound into those shapes by tying or clamping. Once dyed, the cloth then visually registers the shape it was in before it is returned to flat form. Many cultures worldwide have developed methodologies for shaped-resist dyeing, the earliest being the Chavín culture of the Andes (c. 700-200 BC).

Michèle Ratté

Michèle Ratté was educated at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She majored in art with an emphasis on printmaking. In 1979, Michèle established a printmaking studio and spent several years teaching workshops in etching, monoprint and silk-screen printing. During this time she began incorporating fabrics into her prints and collages, and developed a proprietary method for printing textiles. She began making one-of-a-kind scarves and yardage, exhibiting them alongside her prints and collages. In 1989, Barney's New York was introduced to her textiles initiating a business venture that became Michèle Ratté Fabric Design, Ltd. (MRFD). Michèle's company produced art textiles and high-end fashion accessories that were featured at Neiman Marcus, Barney's New York and Takashimaya, as well as many boutiques, galleries, and department stores throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Her work was published in many venues including, Women's Wear Daily, New York Magazine, Mirabella, House and Garden and Travel and Leisure. Michèle closed her production business in 1997 in order to return to her art studio. She is currently making collage and sculpture, as well as collaborating with Joan Morris on the gold project.

About the Site

Photo Credits: The photo on the splash page of hands sewing, and the photo on the Products page of two bracelets on a hand, were shot by Richard Morris.