I took part in a shibori workshop at Port Moody Arts Centre a couple of weekends ago. It was great fun, and introduced me to something totally new which stimulated my fibre lust ..... and we took part ie. the Wee Guy had a go at it too.
For those of you new to the idea of shibori, in a nutshell it's tie-dyed silk. Our instructor, Deanna Welter who had an exhibition in the Plum Gallery of the Arts Centre, introduced to the pleated version which I suppose is nearest to the Arashi method, where areas of resist are introduced by tightly wrapping and scrunching the fabric around a pole. In this example the pole was a wine bottle! I wrapped the silk ribbon while the Wee Guy fed it into my hands. There was enough time to do one each.
He dyed his wrapping using KoolAid, and I got to play with the instructor's heat-stable dyes. The dye process was started off in the microwave with a solution of vinegar and water as a mordant, before letting the fabrics 'stew' for a while prior to rinsing.
The KoolAid dyes resulted in a beautifully pale series of splodges - very delicate. As you can see, the professional dyes resulted in a much stronger 'take' with a very vibrant result.
And if you look closely, yes - it's already being incorporated into a new design!
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