8.19.2007

Shibori: My New Hobby

I made this yesterday.

When I was in Jordan I discovered “Entwinements,”Karren Brito’s amazing blog, and for about a month I looked at her directions for making shibori scarves. I love the texture, and besides I can’t see turning down a silk scarf.

So I ordered 12 silk scarves from Dharma Trading. Their prices are great, and I had the scarves in 3 days.Here is the scarf on the first run through. I did not dye, discharge color and over dye. I dyed the whole scarf this awful florescent green, and then I over dyed with brown and 4 other variations of green. I wasn’t ready on my first try to give discharging a try. Perhaps next time. I have 11 scarves left over, and Miss Carousel’s birthday is soon…

The most time consuming part of this process was wrapping the pole. This is how the resists are created. I won’t restate badly what Karren Brito explains so well on her blog. Needless to say, this is the thankless part of the process.

Once the scarf was pleated up on the bias like this I added the brown and green dyes. Then I put a plastic bag over it and put it outside for a few hours to steam in the hideous SoCal heat. After that I washed it and then I steamed it again, and wrapped a towel around it and rolled it so the pleats would be squished in.The most difficult part was waiting a day for the scarf to dry. I was finished at about 3 yesterday, and I unwrapped it this morning.

And here we are.





I am thrilled with this. The resists mostly resisted the second layer of dye, giving the scarf just touches of the bright green under the more toned down greens and brown. I love it.

6 Comments:

Blogger Marina said...

It's gorgeous, Frances.

I'll be the first to admit I don't fully understand Shibori. The dyeing, I'm OK, but the pleats? Don't they go away with wear or washing?

1:36 PM  
Blogger Weeping Sore said...

Gorgeous, if too labor intensive. The last picture looks like a color-corrected satellite fly-over of a canyon on Mars. The colors are amazing. Isn't silk wonderful?

2:30 AM  
Blogger Donna B said...

That is so beautiful! I love those colors. The whole thing is impressive!

7:44 PM  
Anonymous Susan said...

I love this too and have just started doing it. I bought some "vintage"sarees from India on E-Bay - got 15 yards of silk with each one, cut up you get hundreds of scarves and if you ruin some it doesn't matter.

I wonder how clothing fabric manufacturers put permanent creases in some of their fabrics?

However, after washing, you could twist the scarf like a crinkle skirt, tie the ends and leave to dry and get crinkles again, perhaps new ones, and also the silk may not have the same sheen and will likely fade with multiple washings if it is not "fixed" properly after dyeing with chemicals that keep it from bleeding the dye out.

What do you use to keep this from happening - anything safe to use that you don't have to wear protective gear with?

Susan

5:27 PM  
Blogger فرانسيس said...

Hi Susan,
The dyes here all require protective gear. I try to use veggie dyes when possible, but on silk there is just nothing like acid dyes, bad as they are for the environment.

As for the crinkles, they are pretty hearty. Since I made this green scarf I decided to iron it out and have it flat so the dye lines show better, and it took several washes and many more ironings to flatten it. The others I've made I store by laying them out so they are in a pleated position, and I ball them up, and store them. No problems.

I love the idea of using silk dresses!

10:12 PM  
Anonymous Michele said...

Absolutely AMAZING! I was just looking for a process to create the gorgeous organic pleating as I would like to make silk cords for my handmade glass beads to use as necklaces! After many, many searches - you example is just PERFECT! I know now my first try will be closer to success after reading your examples and suggestions! Thanks for sharing! You've inspired me . . .
www.moonfairyglass.com

12:04 AM  

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