More Shibori Dyeing

It's so great to have the studio up and running, so I can go out whenever I want and find all my stuff together in one place and be creative!  I can't thank my wonderful husband enough for making this all possible. I used to have to schlepp stuff from three different places to my sewing room, that is, after rearranging the studio room so I would have space to dye.

This piece is accordion folded and tied.

The piece above is made by wrapping the fabric around whiffle balls, believe it or not!

This is another one made by folding and using rubber bands to secure the folds.

This was a stitched resist where I used a running stitch in a spiral design.

Here's a Linen/Cotton shirt folded and dyed twice, 

once with horizontal folds, then again with vertical folds.

Indigo Dyeing in the Studio

Below are photos of some more indigo pieces I made the other week.

This is a photo showing the fabrics tied, folded, clamped with rubber bands, etc. 

ready for the indigo vat.

Folded and clamped.

I used the honeycomb technique on this one twice, changing the direction of wrapping the fabric around the rope to get it darker on all four edges.

Folded and clamped with chopsticks.

Folded and clamped.

Arashi Technique on linen. The linen takes the dye beautifully.

This was a silk scarf that I overdid in the Indigo vat.

Folded and clamped with popsicle sticks to create the chevron pattern.

This was a piece on which I used potato dextrin and thickened orange dye and then who knows what else. I wanted to cover up mostly everything but the orange circles.

This was also an over-dyed piece. I used the honeycomb technique on the fabric originally

 and it just needed more. Still needs some more defining, but I have a couple of ideas for it.

Folded and clamped with wooden squares.

Folded, clamped with large metal washers.

Indigo Shibori Shirt Dyeing

I finally opened my Jacquard Indigo kit that I purchased from Dharma Trading company in December of 2016. I bought it to give me some motivation as I laid in bed recovering from my spinal fusion surgery that I had a few months earlier. Well, the kit sat there until the last Saturday this June.

Indigo dyeing seems to be very popular and I've wanted to check it out for awhile now. It was lots of fun and very different from the procion dyeing that I've been doing over 20 years.  The preparation of the fabrics using itajime or arashi techniques are the same however. Here are some pictures of some of the pieces made. I'll add more next week when I have more time.

As you can see below, I used a variety of itajime (folding, binding, clamping, etc.) techniques

 as well as the arashi (tied around the PVC pipe.)

The pieces below are oxidizing. They have been dipped from one to three times each. The more times you dip the fabric, the darker the dye will be.

(Notice, Fang, our black cat on the table in the back who likes to hang out in the studio.)

Above and below are two vintage linen napkins I dyed using the arashi technique

 and then cut and made them into this shirt. I'm really pleased with it. 

 The linen took the indigo dyes just beautifully. Thank you to my good friend Marilyn who gave me her mother's old linen napkins and tablecloths.

The lovely shirt below is a J. Jill, 100% Linen shirt, size Large, that I dyed in the indigo last week.

It is for sale if anyone is interested. Just email me or leave a comment.

It was gifted to me some time ago and no longer fits me.

Below is a video that show the indigo oxidizing.  After you finish doing all your dipping into the indigo, you open up the fabric to allow it to oxidize. 

That is when the fabric turns from  yellow-green to the dark blue.