Indigo dyeing and Shibori

As my craftroom slowly transforms into my studio, which is probably going to end up as my messy play room (messy-play room / messy playroom), I am quieting my cravings to create and play by going elsewhere. On Sunday I went to the Tauranga Historic Village, to a workshop at The Artery. I met Liz at the NZ Fibre Arts week in April, and had seen some of her beautiful work, so when I saw the workshop I was keen to attend even though I could only go for one day of the two day workshop. (Having already bought tickets to Cirque du Solei for the second day.)

Indigo is such a beautiful dye, and, until comparatively recently, the only blue dye, although it has been made from different plants in different places. Shibori is the Japanese term for their ways of resist dying, but some of what we did took me back to happy days at homeschooling camps at Lake Okataina, where tie-dyeing was always one of the activities. Resist dyeing is done throughout the world's cultures in different ways.

Anyway, despite the cold, rain and wet of my drive across country, I had a delightful day. and can't wait to do more resist dyeing using both indigo and other dyes.

 Liz showing us the dye mixing process

  Liz showing us how she folded the fabric to make a particular pattern.

 my pieces, drying

 wrapping 'inclusions' - corks

 wrapping 'inclusions' - florist marbles

 wrapping 'inclusions' - screws

wrapping without 'inclusions' 

sewing but not tightening the threads sufficiently

on the reverse side of the silk velvet you can get a hint of what it should have looked lik 

over-sewing

sewing along lines marked using a template and properly tightened