Our meeting on a beautiful Sunday afternoon had us dipping into the indigo pot again. Once again we experimented with the results of various ways of patterning our fabrics.
And Shar processed some madder root for a red dyebath some day.
Tag: shibori
April 17, 2016 – More Shibori
We had a lovely meeting with just a few choice members showing up: Sharolene, Frank, Lotus, Marcia and Phyllis. We continued with our indigo-dyed shibori project. There are some interesting comparisons of wet versus dry indigo in these pics. They are duplicated to show how much darker the wet indigo is.
Wet indigo towel
Wet indigo shirt
Wet indigo towel
Folded shibori indigo piece
This is Lotus Baker’s handspun handmade beautiful vest that she made for the CNCH fashion show a couple of weeks ago. You can’t tell by the look of it but it has a wonderful feel and drape. She made it using plain weave on her rigid heddle loom. These photos don’t do it justice.
February 28, 2016 – Frank’s Shibori Shirts
We had a lovely day outside at Phyllis’s and the results of our resist dyeing paid off in spades with Frank’s shirts. They are stunning. The indigo pot was perfect and they were dipped several times with different members doing the timing after the timer–OOPS–was accidentally dropped in the water. Once they are dry we need to have good pictures of Frank wearing them.
January 17, 2016, Meeting – Our Indigo Pot
The rain held of long enough for us to use the patio for the indigo dye pot. Sandy, Phyllis, Carol, Lotus, Elaine, Marcia and Anne used the pot and shared other projects. The indigo pot has been in use for around twenty years! and just needs a little refreshing and warmth to get it back up to speed each month. Here are some of the items we dyed.
There were other activities too. Lotus brought some yardage she has woven in plain weave on a rigid heddle loom from yarn leftover on weaving bobbins. While she was here, she worked on socks she is knitting from the toe up with both socks being knit at the same time on circular needles. Sandy used her sewing skills to mend a beautiful quilted Mung jacket that belongs to Phyllis.
Yardage from leftover yarn
Knitting socks
Phyllis’s Mung jacket
There were probably other things going on too, but this is a sampling.
Frank’s June Shibori Dyeing
Saturday I folded and sewed. I found ironing the folds on the clamped pieces made for more accurate folds. I also found ironing the straight pleats for sewing made the sewing easier.
Itajime shibori is a shaped-resist technique. Traditionally, the cloth is sandwiched between two pieces of wood, which are held in place with string
Nui shibori includes stitched shibori. A simple running stitch is used on the cloth then pulled tight to gather the cloth
These are my results
Fiber Artisans of San Jose 