Experimenting with Shibori and fabric scrunching.

I am always looking for new ideas on what can be done with dyes on cloth. Recently I discovered an ancient Japanese art called Shibori that has been practiced for over 1000 years. Shibori means to take fabric and wring, squeeze or press and then add color. Each action has a specific name such as binding, spiderweb binding or "kumo", Kanoko binding, capping, stitching, stitching and gathering or "Ori nui",  "Mokume", "karamatsu" and there are many others. A very simplified form of it in America is known as tie dyeing, which really means any way of shaping, binding, tying and then dyeing fabric.

After seeing the Shibori, of course, I wanted to try it all! Such wonderful colors, such an expressive way to transform the fabric. However there being a limited number of hours in each day I decided to try a few techniques each time I was able to work on it. 

For my first projects I choose pleating , tie and scrunch, binding and sewing.

 These pictures show the cloth tied, scrunched, and pleated, then opened and ironed after color dried. Pleating may be done on wet or dry fabric. The cloth is then tied using string or rubber bands. Dye is dripped, dribbled or painted on. After fabric dries, ties are removed and fabric  may be ironed or left wrinkled which can actually add to the design.

These are examples of binding. Binding is taking objects and tying fabric around them with string or rubber bands. I found the binding had to be really tight or dyes would leak under them. I used garbanzo beans on the red cloth and flat round stones from a beach on the blue. Fabric was then dipped in to a dye bath, dried and bindings removed.

Next I tried sewing. Patterns were drawn  on the cloth with light pencil. Light stitching is used on the patterns. Colored thread seems to be easier to see when it comes to pulling the thread out! After stitching-gently pull the stitches up until tight and tie them off. Dye the fabric by using eyedroppers, paint brushes or foam brushes. Wonderful, exciting designs on the cloth can be made this way.
Mistakes can be made. They only lead either to new ideas for next time or to you being able to understand better how the process works!
Trying these techniques was a lot of fun. It was very exciting when opening the fabric. Even though it was only the tip of the ice burg as they say. I learned a lot and would definitely like to try more Shibori and fabric scrunching!