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Archive for the ‘shibori’ Category

Shibori for Sure

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

First of all, where is everyone? Did you all go on vacation at once and you didn’t let me know? Yesterday, was my first post without a single comment, since I can’t remember.

On with the photos from my fantastic shibori class. Here is class work from yesterday. We are all discovering the elusiveness of indigo. It can get too much oxygen and become “tired.” Then you have to add more indigo and warm water and let it rest for a while. It is also important to soak the pieces in warm water to get a better penetration of the indigo.

indigostudentwork2.jpg

indigostudentwork.jpg

Here is some stitching that I did on some linen. Al the stitches have to be pulled up tight and tied off. This piece is still drying so that it will be easier to remove the stitches

indigostitchesonlinen.jpg

Yesterday, we used synthetic indigo and today we mixed up a batch of natural indigo. It comes in a lump that has to be ground to a powder.

indigopesto.jpg

Here is the work that I brought home to wash and dry.

indigowork.jpg

The upper left is linen that was folded and ironed and clamped with wooden triangles. the one next to is is a previously folded and dyed piece that I got from June Underwood. I folded this on the diagonal first then folded it in the other direction and clamped it with rectangle wood pieces. The top row of reddish pink pieces are dupioni silk dyed in Brazilwood with different mordants — copper, rust and alum/ I have no idea which is which. The bottom pieces were dyed in logwood. The smaller indigo piece is one of the dupioni pieces from yesterday that I overdyed by scrunching it on a pvc pole. The first of the longer pieces is a chiffon scarf that was folded in triangles and then wrapped on a pvc pipe with string — arashi shibori. The next piece was a very ugly lime green chiffon scarf on which a batiked image did not show up very well. I wrapped and scrunched it on a pvc pipe and I really like it now. The last piece is silk organza that is done arashi style — wrapped on a large pvc pipe then wrapped with string. Here are the arashi pieces waiting to be dyed.

indigoarashiwraps.jpg

Tonight I am going to prepare the scarf in the background for overdyeing by wrapping it arashi style.

Here are some closeups of today’s work that are clickable for larger views.

indigolinencloseup.jpg indigoscargcloseups.jpg naturaldyes.jpg

Mood Indigo

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

Me and my blue fingers are checking in with some photos of today’s shibori class. I learned a lot about indigo and the Japanese method of shibori. We did several samples: stitching, clamping and scrunching.

Here are photos of my stitching. This method of shibori is very tedious, but you can get some interesting and almost predictable designs. Here are samples of my stitching:

shiboristitches.jpg

Here is the same piece with the stitches pulled and gathered. I used buttonhole twist for strength.

shiboristitchespulled.jpg

Here is the other piece. It has screws which I have stitched around and some curved stitching.

shiboristitching2.jpg

Here are some fabrics that are folded and clamped.

shiboriclamped.jpg

Indigo is not fiber reactive. It lays on the surface of the fiber and needs oxidation to work. So you have to dip in the indigo, take it out and fuss with it while the dye turns from green to blue as it oxidizes; this is repeated at least 3 times – more for silk.

Here is some class work hanging on the line to dry.

shiboridryng.jpg

And here are today’s samples, rinsed, washed, dried and ironed.

shiboriindigosamples.jpg

Clockwise, here is what I did:

  1. cotton folded and clamped with a two Plexiglas squares that had holes in the center.
  2. dupioni silk triangle fold and clamped with sections of a wooden clothes pin on each side.
  3. cotton shibori stitching
  4. cotton shibori stitching – attempting shapes and stitching around screws
  5. silk chiffon scarf that was wrapped around a 1 1/2 inch wood dowel and scrunched – not tying.
  6. linen damask tablecloth piece folded and clamped with credit cards on each side
  7. dupioni silk folded and clamped with Plexiglas squares

Today, we used synthetic indigo. Tomorrow we are using the natural stuff. I have one piece that I am using a rusted metal to clamp it. It has to dry between dye dips so that the oxidation can cause the rust action.

There are 8 students in the class, with a couple of young women — the rest are in my generation. I love the instructor. She has a great sense of humor and is ever so patient with us.

I am going to prepare an arashi piece for dyeing tomorrow. That is the pole wrapped fabric with string and scrunching.

I made it to Weight Watchers at 5 pm and weighed the same as I did last week in the morning so I am assuming that I lost about 2 pounds, at least.