Shibori
Shibori is an ancient is a Japanese resist dyeing technique meaning to wring or squeeze. When completing this method you can manipulate the fabric in several ways including: twisting, binding, clamping, folding or pleating before submerging the fabric in the dye pan so that areas of the fabric resist the dye. On the other hand sometimes the fabric is painted rather than submerged. I experimented with some of the different types of Shibori •Below are just a few simple and popular Shibori methods. They actually worked really well, which I'm surprised about as I thought that the ink would soak through all the fabric meaning there would be no resist. However, seen as I only kept the fabric in the dye bath for a couple of minutes, this wasn't the case. On the other hand, the Mokume sample didn't work very well as the lines in it are very faint, this maybe due to the thickness of the thread or how tight I pulled it together. If I was doing this again I would use thicker thread, draw it together tighter, and also maybe drizzle the dye on instead of soaking it in the dye bath.
ITAJIME -Fold & clamp
NE-MAKI- Winding
KUMO - I wrapped in thread
MOKUME - stitched used embroidery thread for a more pronounced effect
Natural Dyes
In this weeks dye lesson we learnt about natural dyeing as an alternative to using chemicals to dye our fabric. Contrary to belief using natural dyes can create rich, deep colours, that don't fade over time. This can be seen as many historical artefacts still have a steadfast colour to them, despite the fact that they are hundreds of years old.
In this lesson we dyed some scraps of fabric with :
Red cabbage- to get a light lilac/ grey
Red onion skins - light brown
cochineal- bright pink
pomegranate- light brown
Turmeric- bright yellow
These colours didn't have a concentrated hue as there was a lot of water in it compared to dye stuff. Water acts as white in essence, resulting in a less concentrated solution, which means a paler colour. Furthermore we didn't have time to mordant the fabric meaning that the pigment didn't stick to the fabric as well, and can easily be washed out. I've done a lot of natural dying in the past as I wanted to find a chemical free way to dye my clothes, so have experimented on ways to get different colours. However, I've never tried using vinegar ( an acid) or bicarbonate of soda ( an alkali) to change the colour of a die. This actually worked really well on most of the dyes with the most surprising being the bicarbonate of soda turning the turmeric pink.
I would like to experiment more with natural dyes, especially with changing the PH's, and hopefully using these discoveries in my work.
Rust Dyes
This week we looked at using rust to create patterns in fabrics. To do this we use nails and pins, which we wrapped/ pierced the fabric with. Then we sprayed them with a mixture of water and vinegar. One way of rust dying is spraying the fabric then leaving it in a bag so it stays damp for a few days, or until the desired effect is reached ( you may need to keep spraying to stop it drying out). However, due to time restraints I steamed my fabric after spraying it, which speeds up the process.
My samples didn't work out very well. The metal did rust, but only left a small mark on the fabric. Next time I might leave my fabric for longer, keep spraying it with vinegar, or use metal that was rusty to begin with. Also I would like to experiment with different typed of materials, especially silk, as I have seen samples of this and love the way the rust effects the silk.
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