Dots

Well, I need a bit more practice. Some of the shibori designs are made up of (literally) millions of tiny dots such as in Kanoko. The grouping and spacing creates the image.
This is just a really simple design in that idea. Although I did it with soy wax batik rather than tying the knots. I used a tjanting, a little cup on a handle, to apply the wax by just touching it to the fabric. The size dot you get depends on how long you hold the tjanting in one spot as the wax flows out the spout and how hot the wax is. As it cools and thickens it doesn’t flow as fast.
The solid petals were filled in using the tjanting like coloring in with a pen. On the one in the upper left you can see the edges of some petals look like I started with dots and then filled in. Can’t imagine why they look like that…. So far, I prefer to use a brush to fill in the wax as I’m more used to it and the control I get. But this would be faster for larger areas as I have to dip the brush pretty frequently.
Like I said, I need more practice. I keep hoping I can learn magically and can be perfect on the first try but it hasn’t happened yet.

Square and dots

Another sample I did for the class at the Textile Center. Again folded in quarters as a triangle. The spots around the outside were made by placing a small bead inside and wrapping thread around it. It is Ne-Maki or Kanoko Shibori when wrapping the thread around a tiny pinch of fabric. I’m not sure if there is a name for placing a bead inside first. A practiced Shibori artist can form very consistent dots without beads, but it can make them easier to form them for someone that hasn’t been practicing for years.



It surprised me how the dots are so square. The bead was round and when I wrapped them they looked round. But I noticed that the squares are all oriented on the bias. I’m guessing they’re square because of the how the silk stretches a bit on the bias.

The center of the hankie has a color variation across the middle. The lower right section was folded to the inside so the dye couldn’t get to it as easily. The front and back of the hankie are slightly different, but not much. I’ve also noticed color variation like this when I did a sample and it was folded in half and wasn’t stirred. It looked like the dye settled out of the water and sat on top of the fabric.