Shibori Dyeing with Friends

This is the beautiful view from my studio last night.

Below is an accordion folded Itajime piece, done on Essex Linen from Dharma Trading Co. I really like it and the hand of the fabric is perfect for showing the details.

Over the weekend, one of the members of my weekly quilting circle had her art-loving granddaughter and boyfriend visiting her. She asked if they could all come over and dye a shirt. So here they are below working on their projects.

Love the intense concentration from Cameron as she's applying the dyes. Her boyfriend seemed to have a good time dyeing his first shirt ever. He was glad to find out why those kind of designs on shirts are called '"Tie Dye."  It was quite the ah-ha moment for him.

Below is another picture of the cute couple.  

Can't wait to see how their shirts turned out.

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.

Itajime Revisited

Having the time of my life playing around with Itajime, which is the Japanese technique

 for creating patterns on fabric through folding, clamping, and /or binding it followed by dyeing.

This piece was previously dyed. I accordion folded it,

 then folded it another way tying rubber bands to secure the folds.

Then squeezed darker colored dyes into it.

Below is another piece accordion folded and secured, ready for dyeing.

Below is a picture of the three pieces with the dye applied and in the batching stage.

 And here are the other two finished pieces.

I've Been Published!

I've been published again by Quilting Arts Magazine!

 My article about using Itajime techniques to create patterns on cloth

 is in the new Quilting Arts IdeasBook.

Finally Finished Shibori Quilt

Except for attaching the sleeve and the label I finally finished my shibori quilt. It's been difficult with my back issues to sit or stand very long so it was done in many mini sessions. I really like how it came out and hope it gets accepted into the SLO Art Museum's upcoming Dimensions Show. I'll find out by November 15th.

I used my own arashi and itijime dyed fabrics and it is hand stitched with a big stitch. Here's a couple closeups of it.

Itajime Fun

I was so inspired last week from seeing Ana Lisa Hedstrom that I had to do some itajime.

Folded and stitched these on the machine. The stitching showed up as little dots

 after being dyed. I started with Kona gold fabric.

Folded, stitched and wrapped arashi style.

Batched them for 24 hours.

Before rinsing.

Here's all three pieces together and below each one separately.

Below is a closeup of the little stippling from where the dye penetrated through the fabric

 where it was stitched.

Ana Lisa Hedstrom

Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear Ana Lisa Hedstrom speak at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art. I have admired her work for a long time and was not disappointed. She talked about her journey as an artist, living and studying in many different countries in Asia.  She then spoke about each of her wonderful pieces in the exhibit.

 Here she is speaking in front of a plant dyed wool felt piece.

 The piece above and two below are done on Japanese kozo paper

Paint and Dye with Itajime

This is the last piece from my dyeing session a few weeks ago. It started as an experiment using paint and whiffle balls.

I did some itajime folding and clamping as you see below.

After clamping, I applied dye and let it batch for about 24 hours.

Here's the finished piece, which I feel has a lot more depth and complexity.

Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year!

More Itajime and Over-dyeing

I started with an arashi piece made some time ago that needed a little something more.

I folded it, clamped it and applied black dye, made up of two blacks, Better Black and Jet Black (from Dharma Trading Co.) I used 3 tablespoons of each, some salt and 1 cup of urea. 

It batched for about 24 hours.

The black came out very intense and black, while the wooden discs resisted the dye

 giving the piece some nice contrast.

New Itajime Piece and More

Yesterday I created a new Itajime piece and over-dyed a few pieces.

The fabric was folded in thirds then accordion folded into triangles. 

I clamped it and soaked it in soda ash. Then I removed the clamps and applied dye by using squeeze bottles. Next I wrapped it in plastic and let it batch for 20 hours.The picture doesn't do it justice. I think my lighting was off. I like how it really glows.

Here's one I over-dyed. The original fabric is on the left. I scrunched it up, placed it in a plastic container and added a little Deep Orange to it.  I think it has more depth now.