Indigo and Shibori Dye

Yesterday was my first ever attempt at indigo dying and checking out the concept of Shibori. I Googled "Shibori" and found out that: it is a Japanese term for several methods of dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting....

It was lots of fun even though it was so hot yesterday. I was very happy with some of my projects. It is strange but I forgot to take a picture of the Shibori pole-wraped silk scarf!!! I still have some indigo left in my dye vat and I definitely want to do some more dying.

I invite anyone who is interested to check out these websites: http://shiborigirl.wordpress.com/

and

http://www.maiwa.com/documentaries/pc_callender.html

I just had to download a few of their informative podcasts too.

What a great experience! So, I wasn't really sure what to expect so I had "prepared" a few items for the dye bath. However, what I like the most wasn't my dyed pillowcases but the Shibori dyed silk scarf. I know that I have a few more packages of silk chiffon and my fingers are just itching to get them in the dye bath.

So, in the beginning ... there is plain white cotton and in this case, two pillowcases. I went to the dollar store and got some elastics (500 in a package no less) and started to "tie" my fabric. I was surprised to find out that elastics have changed from what I had used in the past (who knew?!!)

Okay there are a few things going on in the snap below. I have a piece of watercolour paper, an old sweater that had some stains on it and yes a pole. With some helpful instructions from my good friend Leanne, I have taped, wrapped and bound with crochet cotton my silk scarf to the outside of the pole.

I didn't know that the dye would at first appear to be green until the oxygen gets at the fabric and turns it the lovely blue shade.

One pillowcase successfully dyed!

So here is the one pillow case. The worst part of doing this was untying the elastic. I ripped out, snapped off as much as I could with a pair of scissors. I was just a bit concerned about doing that since I was afraid of cutting the fabric. Secondly, I was wondering how my fingers and nails would look the next day. My finger nails only have a slightly blue tinge today!

Oh so reminiscent of the 1970's!!! I love fun!

Oh and if you are wondering; yes, I am still doing hair on my final drawing project!!!

Okay, I'm at Starbucks in town so I can use the free WiFi internet and downloading the latest updates for my computer. Along comes an "old fella" and asked one of the men if he is here to get away from his parents basement. He thought that we were all way to engrossed on what is going on our respective computer screens. When I looked up to survey my colleagues at the table I would have surmised that we are all over the age of 35. Obviously, we look silly to the "old fella" who was wearing a white canvas fedora (while indoors no less).