Shibori Techniques Lesson 2

7/23/2019 Shibori Techniques Lesson 2

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Shibori Techniques on Silk

with Glennis Dolce (Shibori Girl Studios)

using Colorhue dyes

©2010 Glennis Dolce– all rights reserved www.shiborigirlstudios.comNo part of this document may be reproduced or distributed in any format without permission of the authorPatterns and templates are provided for personal use only and are not to be sold or distributed in any way.

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Lesson 2.1- Stitched Shibori Techniques

Lesson 2 & 3 will involve stitched techniques. In this lesson (2) we will learn three basic traditional

styles and practice them on different fabrics. I will also introduce a couple of variations on thesetraditional styles and how they can be enhanced with the Colorhue dyes. I suggest reading through the

entire lesson first before you start. Trust me, it will help.

Let’s begin by collecting your supplies for this lesson. (refer to your supply list for details) You will need:

-sewing needle

-strong thread ( upholstery thread or I use a polyester size 33 black thread-it’s just what I have)

-straightedge of some kind

-seam ripper

-pencil or washout marker

-silk (I am using silk broadcloth, & silk habotai, but you can use what you like or have on hand. I don’t recommend

the organza or gauze as it is so sheet it won’t show the pattern very well. A tight weave is best. If working in cotton

and another dyeset, cotton lawn is a favorite of mine)

-dyes and containers

Basically, stitched shibori involves compression of the fabric by any method of stitching. Stitching in

different patterns results in different designs once the dye is applied. Steam setting the silk after dyeingwill additionally set the shape/texture into the silk enhancing the pattern created by the dye. Here I will

focus on the dye patterns resulting from the stitching. Feel free to practice what I am presenting here on

other fabrics and experiment. Here I have created a sampler of three basic traditional stitched shibori

styles on a piece of silk broadcloth (aprox. 12” square) that I base dyed in a light green/blue. You canleave them white or natural for the highest contrast.

First I will introduce mokume. Mokume is defined by parallel rows of running stitches. You can create

these rows within a defined shape if desired (such a a circle, square etc.). Mokume refers to the“woodgrain” pattern created by the stitching after dyeing.

Use a washout marker or pencil and straightedge to mark your rows and stitch with a double thread

knotted at one end leaving 3” of thread at the end of each row. Keep all your knots at the same side.





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Next, we will stitch a makiage design. Makiage is defined as a pattern within a motif. This can be as

simple as the circle motif as I have exampled here or you can do any closed shape such as a flower, aheart, leaves, or interlocking geometric shapes. Again beginning with your needle, thread doubled and

knotted, sew a shape as in the photo. Proceed on, a stitch past the beginning knot closing the shape andcut thread leaving about a 6” tail. The extra thread will be used to wrap around the gathered fabric on

this one- thereby creating the pattern within the (circle) motif. Don’t worry if you come up short. Youcan always wrap the inside with a new thread.

The next technique is orinui. Orinui involves stitching the cloth on the fold, bringing the needle up and

over the folded edge of the fabric and inserting the needle from the back to the front, up and over thefolded edge and repeating (kind of like you are wrapping the needle with the fabric).

Here, I stitched two parallel rows of orinui culminating in a point. All stitching is done prior to drawing

up threads. Gathering threads distorts the fabric and you wouldn’t be able to properly stitch your

designs if you gather as you go. It is extremely important to use strong thread to stitch with. A verycomplicated design takes a long time to stitch and if you break a thread while drawing up your stitches it

is very difficult to re-stitch while half drawn up!! At some point, this will probably happen to you.





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Here is my sampler all stitched up-

Review-

lower right- mokume rowsupper right and middle- makiage circles

upper left- orinui rows coming together in a point

lower left- undulating rows of stitching

Now comes the “fun” part. Pulling up your threads. Here are a few tips:

-pull up the mokume rows in pairs, tying off the ends in a square knot as tightly as possible WITHOUT

breaking your thread!

-tie up the makiage and secure with a square knot leaving any extra thread for wrapping around thecenter. Once knotted, you can wrap the extra thread a few times around at the base where your stitching

is and continue wrapping up the extra fabric until you reach the tip. Using a backwards loop (like a

simple cast on in knitting) to secure the wrapping. You can do this twice if necessary to secure.

-pull up the orinui working the stitches together tightly sliding them up against your knot. Secure with asquare knot.





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You can also wet the fabric to compress it further before knotting off. The tighter the

compression of the stitching, the better your pattern will come out.

all drawn up and ready to wet out before dyeing.

The drawn up resisted fabric takes on a very sculptural shape at this point. All those tails can make

things confusing if you have a very elaborate design. Usually, I will clip the drawn up knotted off

threads to an inch or two as I go to lessen the confusion. Unless you are somewhat methodical about theorder in which you pull up your threads you may miss one and not realize it until after you open up your

design.

After the fabric is wet out you are ready to dye. To get the most contrast use a darker color to over dye.Another alternative is to use white to start with or to dye the base a color like yellow and over dye with a

color that will result in another color- like say, blue-which will turn green in contrast with the yellow.

You get the idea. Prepare your dyebath and dye your stitched piece.

Remember, this is a sampler. You are learning. Don’t expect perfect results the first time around.

Sometimes the unintended result brings forth many ideas to act upon in subsequent pieces. This is the

beauty of shibori. Make notes when you get results you favor if you think you may want to refer to theidea later. You may want to make some samples to create a notebook of techniques for reference.

After dyeing, use your seam ripper to CAREFULLY lift and cut threads and release the stitching. This

is where you can easily cut a hole in your silk. It happens. We’ve all done it. Just use care and if a hole

appears, you can use your creativity to work around it. Open up the silk to reveal your results!





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sampler after removing stitching

-here are some details of the sampler. I used a bluish black to overdye. I also painted on some turquoise

on the wrapped centers of the makiage circles. We will do more of this later on.

orinui- this stitching over the fold creates a chevron type pattern. Placing two rows close together sort of

combines them and makes them look like tire tracks- my point was not perfectly resisted. Not tight

enough at the tip. A good piece of stiched shibori is well executed. This one misses the mark. Expect tolearn as you go- no one is immune to imperfection at some point.

lesson 2.1 video 2

Dyeing the Stitched Sampler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK4F_HpgbgE





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-a very simple makiage circle. Here is where I painted

some concentrated (50/50) turquoise over the wrapped center.

-detail of the mokume- on this fabric (the broadcloth) I would probably spread my rows differently.

Here they are !” and the pattern is not as clear as I would like. I could have also directly paint someconcentrated dye on the gathered cloth to highlight the pattern before releasing. I left the stitch lines for

you to see-

Some other stitched designs dyed with colorhue-

makiage on white silk- 4 concentric stitched circles-

like mokume but in rings…





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two concentric stitched circles with a wrapped center(skipped a section-the brown part) combination of immersion and painted dye

makiage squares on white. Hand paintedcenters- reserved while dyeing the blue. Honestly- I can’t remember all the details on this one. Just

thought you needed to see some of the possibilities! Here are were notes can help…





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Here’s another painted makiage circle- this one done on light olive habotai

First three concentric circles were stitched and drawn up. The last (inner) circle thread was left long andwrapped around to the tip using a backward loop to secure the thread tightly in place.

Next, the fabric was wet out and the base (loose open fabric) was dyed in a dark color-just up to where

the stitching started (partially immersed).

Lastly, the stitched and wrapped tip was painted with dye concentrates (about 50/50 dye to H2O)and rinsed.

-detail of painted tip and then removing the threads





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dried and ironed

-notice the more concentrated black which was painted around the base of the outer circle. This gives aninteresting contrast to the shape and helps to define the edge.

At this point, I will direct you to a short video I made on shade dyeing with the Colorhue dyes. There

have been some questions regarding the depth of shade one can achieve with the Colohue. It is verybasic but it may be able to clear up some things for you by showing an example or two. Remember, the

longer the dye is in contact with the fabric, the more dye it can tape up. Do a small test and leave the

fabric in overnight to see how clear you can get the dyebath. This will mean you have used up all the

dye and it is attached to the fabric.

Shade Dyeing with Colorhue

OK- now how about one more idea? Get out another piece of silk-either habotai or broadcloth would begood. Here is what I did:

Use an object to paint a couple of shapes (or just freehand it) onto the silk with a brush loaded with dye.This can be ay concentration you want to make it. I think here I used something like 50% dye to water.

I used a small bowl turned upside down. Really- anything will do. Here I painted on the dry silk.

Painting on dry silk has a different result than on wet silk. Try it for yourself and notice the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El_29wZrJvw





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I suggest you do the sampler first just to get a feel for the stitched work. It can be a little slow going at

first so keep it simple and learn to draw up the stitches tightly to get a pattern going. You may want tostart with a completely white fabric to see the most contrast. Blue is a good choice to overdye as it

shows up well and can mimic an indigo look which is nice. Gauze and very open weave fabrics will not

show a stitched pattern as clearly as heavier and tightly woven fabrics.

Using the orinui style stitchingdone on the fold I stitched around

my painted shapes before pullingup my stitches and securing with asquare knot.

Using a new piece of thread I

wrapped the center of the circle andthe " circle (I let one of my shapes

run off the edge of the silk).

I soaked the silk then prepared apurple dyebath using the scarlet and

some turquoise letting the silk soakin the bath just up to the wrapped

bits.

I then prepared a small amount of

an olive/yellow dye and dipped the

wrapped ends in this. I thenremoved the silk and painted some

black around the base of the circles

and a little bit down the side of the

wrappings.

Rinse and open!





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As you can see, you can combine dipping and painting of these dyes. The dyes set very quickly makingpainting the dye an attractive option creating unique results. Start to think outside the box/bottle with

these dyes.

Some other thoughts outside of shibori:- mix the dye with shaving foam to silk screen on silk.

- Float the dye on water and print (monoprint) the silk

You can visit my flickr page for more samples of stitched shibori here-worth a visit to see more variety:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdolce/sets/72157623501825758/

A couple good books on the topic are:

Arimatsu Shibori: A Japanese Tradition of Indigo DyeingBy Bonnie F. Abiko

-awesome but out of printand

Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing

By Yoshiko Wada

Enjoy, take your time and don’t forget you can always visit the blog and view the videos. Take

advantage of reviewing the work of others as well. It is part of the learning experience.

Mata ne! (until next time) Glennis

Shibori Techniques Lesson 2

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