Blue

Like the previous post, an example of color differences on cotton vs. silk and from previous batches.

The silk scarf on the right and the guy in the middle were in the same batch.  The hooded tshirt, done with the Mokume Shibori technique, on the left is the same color but from a previous batch.  I know the guy and scarf the dye was stronger.  This is Dharma Trading's Lapis.

Bands

Bands only or all over? The contrast between the solid and pattern can make the pattern stand out more while the all over pattern can have a big impact. An example of Mokume Shibori, but only part of the shirt was stitched up for one.

Leaves

A small practice piece trying out some different shapes and ways of stitching. This is some rayon made out of bamboo rather than the normal wood pulp or cotton. Although rayon is semi-synthetic, it dyes with the same dye that is used for cotton. It’s nice to work with and the fabric can be pulled up tightly so the marks are quite clear.

The leaf on the left was stitched around the outside and one row down the middle.

The center one was sewn in a set of arcs. You can see the dots along the top curves where the thread knots were. I didn’t use pieces of fabric to prevent like I frequently do.

The right hand one was 4 rows of arcs with the center left open.

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.

Square

The next hankie I did for the class was also folded in quarters, but squares instead of triangles. You can see the color is a little darker along the fold. It was also stitched as Mokume Shibori, with 3 rows of thread for the outer band and 4 rows for the inner band. The markers in the corners were just a few stitches.


The color for this one (and the next few samples coming) was actually lapis blue. The below picture is a batik cotton knit shirt dyed with the same color to show again how silk will dye a different color than cotton. I really like the colors both fabrics turned out. And the variation on the silk is interesting, it shifts color rather than being lighter and darker like the cotton. So it looks, to me, like it is shimmering.



I did a better job of lining up the layers so the folds didn’t affect the pattern like the previous sample.

Have I mentioned how handy silk hankies are for practice? A lot cheaper than scarves and you can play and figure out what will happen for a lot lower price.

An excellent instruction and reference book is Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada.

Class

I took another class at the Textile Center in Minneapolis and learned a lot. I like to look at my projects and figure out why something turned out that way. Then I can either avoid it or try to do it again.

This one is a silk hankie folded in quarters and stitched in the style of Mokume Shibori. It was actually dyed with a black dye fiber reactive dye but silk takes the dye differently than cotton. I got a nice plum purple.

Most dyes are made of particles of different colors, especially black. You don't have a jar full of black particles, you have a jar full of different colors that combine to appear black. Or at least that is the hope. Black is really hard to get. Paula Burch has some great info about why this happens. There are a limited number of ‘sites’ on the silk fiber that can bond to the dye. Think of Tinker Toys and how the connectors only have 6 or 8 holes for the rods. Fiber only has so many sites to bond with dye. It can be hard to get enough of the dye to attach to the fiber.
Also, the different colors have different particle sizes. So they move through the water and into the fiber at different rates. With Shibori, this can give nice shadings and variations. You can see that the areas that were only somewhat 'resisted' are more blue than purple.

The corners of the stitching aren’t as consistent as I wanted. The inside fold slipped a bit away from the outside. If it were cotton it wouldn’t be a big deal to put in some basting stitches to hold it together better. But silk is less forgiving and the needle holes can show more.

And you can see a string coming off the label. The little labels on strings you get at the office supply store work well to mark them with what color and techniques you used. After a while, it’s hard to keep track of what you did.

More

I've been busy getting items done for the Women's Art Festival on the 11th, a week from tomorrow. Of course, I expect everyone I know to by just dyeing to be there. (Did I mention I tell bad jokes.) I'll have a lot more choices then.

We'll see how much more I can get done in a week. Just so long as I'm not up until midnight the night before. When we have to be up early the next morning to load the car and set up, we notice we aren't as young as we'd like to be. Just so long as I remember my pepsi.

Color

Another example of how different fabrics turn out different colors.

Both were in the same dye bath. The shirt is a cotton knit, while the square is a silk weave. Silk can be dyed with fiber reactive dye, the type of dye you use for plant fibers. But the dye reacts differently with silk. It's still a pretty color, you just have to know it'll be different.

Also, both were stitched up as the Mokume Shibori technique. But the silk just didn't compress like the cotton. I think partly because the shirt is a knit and is able to be compressed more. And partly because the cotton threads ore a bit thicker. If I want to do a silk scarf with a stitched resist, I'll have to sew it the long way, rather than the short way. Otherwise the pattern just doesn't show up as much as I'd like.

Purple

I just love purple, and I love the look of Mokume Shibori. I'm really happy with how this turned out.

It isn't the picture that is faded on the edges. It is the shirt itself. I only stitched a band across the shirt instead of stitching the whole thing. The color of the shirt fades like that. The shadings that happen using this technique are so interesting.

Variation

These two shirts were sewn with the same Mokume technique as other shirts I've done. But instead of soaking it in water before putting it in the dye bath, I just put it right into the dye. The definition and contrast between the outside and inside of the folds is much less. The pattern is more subtle.

Soaking in clear water (or water with soda ash) first will 'fill' up the fabric so when it goes into the dye bath the water that is carrying the dye can't penetrate as much. It can mainly get to the easy parts.

Textures

The leaf on the left was stitched like the Mokume shirts. Several rows of stitching to control the texture.

The one on the right was stitched only along the outside edge. Then gathered up and the thread wrapped around the part sticking up.

The straight line along the edge was just a single, straight row of stitching.

Variations

The two shirts in this pic were both done with the Mokume Shibori technique and dyed in the same dyebath at the same time. The one on the left is a rayon woven fabric shell. The one on the right is a cotton knit tank.

You can see what a difference the textures of the fabric makes in how the dye is soaked up and how much it travels into the folds. Seams can make a big difference also. Along hems it'll not travel through to the other side so the result will be affected by that also.

Because I stitch up the shirts flat - both sides together at the same time. There is less dye that makes it to the valleys. It has to go through an extra layer of fabric. If it were stitched each layer separately, that would look different also.

Stitching

In this picture you can more easily see how I do the stitching for Mokume Shibori. If the stitches line up too much, the pattern is more like stripes and has less 'texture'. Too much variation and I don't like the way it looks that way either. I like it when there are sections of each, but I keep the sections small.

I've also found that if you pull up the thread while you go, it's hard to keep from getting the stitches from lining up vertically. I'll pull it up some, so I don't use 14 spools of thread on a larger garment. But not too much.

I like to use a colored thread so it is easier to see the previous rows. Black is nice because then you can still see it after it's been dyed. But the blue thread was on sale at the fabric outlet and it's heavier than normal thread. For me, it works better to use upholstery or button thread. Broken threads when trying to pull it tight do not make me happy.

Colors

Here are some of the shirts that were in the buckets in the last picture. The colors and patterns turned out really well. Hmm, did you notice it is also my new banner for my Etsy store? Well, the store name does have the word color in it.
I just love the way the shirts turn out using the Mokume technique. The pattern is so interesting.

I'm also looking at everything I would need to do & have to do a show. I have quite the list of things I would need. Unfortunately, the tent my SIL could loan me isn't the kind that would work well for a craft show.
But I have my MN tax ID# and can now legally collect and pay MN sales tax. Yippee? Kind of. But I'm legal. I'm sure my Mom is proud of me, or at least glad she won't read about me in the paper for Bad Things. When I 'went out into the world' she gave me the advice that if it was something I don't want her to find out about, maybe I shouldn't do it.

Above is a picture of a brown and green shirt I have in my Etsy store. It was done with the Mokume Shibori technique. It shows the different pattern depending on if the rows of stitching are offset from each other.

The brown rows were carefully stitched the same for several rows. This made the fabric pleat in a consistent way. At the edge of the brown I stitched exactly the reverse, to give change the pattern. Then I left about 2" and stitched the green area in a more random, alternating way.

So when you look at the pattern you can see where the stitches line up more, row after row, and where they alternate a lot more. Both patterns are nice. It gives a nice texture.

I suppose if I was really careful I could get something similar to a checkerboard. But I would also have to spend an awful lot of time getting the fabric to pucker right when I was pulling up the threads. You have to kind of work it a bit to get it to go nicely. And you don't want the sewing threads to sit on top of the fabric, it leaves little dashes. Some are good, but too many give a look that isn't what I'm trying for. Kind of like weeds are plants where you don't want them. They may be pretty, but only if they are where you want them.

It turned out well

We had rain for a couple days so I've had more time to prepare shirts and dye them. I'm really happy how the 2 shirts I had done with the Mokume Shibori technique turned out. The colors and texture are really nice. That is what is in the pictures.

The stars and stripes ones also turned out the way I had in mind.

The small alphabet stamps for batik aren't going to work. I wanted to use some smaller letters, but the wax spreads too much, it doesn't look the way I want. Perhaps I'll try with different temps of wax. I need different burners to heat my wax. I use one of those portable burners since I work in the basement area. It runs a bit hot, even on the lowest setting. I'm using soy wax and it melts at a lower temp. But from reading the instructions of how to get out traditional batik wax, which is a mix of paraffin & beeswax, I'll figure out what works best for the soy.

Soy wax can be washed out in hot water & detergent. It's like a harder vegetable shortening (looks like Crisco but firmer). Since the temps used are lower it's also less likely you'll burn yourself.

To get out paraffin and beeswax the item has to be boiled in water and then cooled so the wax can be skimmed off. It used to be you could take it to the dry cleaner and they could get it out. But the chemical they used was 'kind of' toxic and not very many places use it any longer.

You can get soy wax for making candles also, it gives off less soot.

Like tightening a corset or something

Today's picture is of the shirt I was sewing up. I have almost all of the threads pulled up tight. Once I get them all pulled and tied off it'll be ready for dyeing. Then it'll look a lot like the orange one in my first post. You can see the ripples and folds the sewing makes. You don't want the rows too consistent or you'll get something more like pleats. Depending on how far apart the rows are, how far between stitches, if you go straight or wavy, etc., change the result.

Shibori was frequently dyed using indigo. While it take a bit of work to get a vat going, it doesn't need a mordant like most other natural dyes. The problem with most natural dyes is that the mordant can be quite toxic. A mordant is something that makes the dye react with the fiber and permanently bond to it. Think of bread. Without water, the yeast won't 'eat' the flour and create carbon dioxide and cause you bread to rise.

And an indigo vat can be like sourdough starter. It takes some care and feeding to get it set up and maintain it. But then it isn't so bad. But my setup doesn't work well to use an indigo vat. Also, I like to use a lot of different colors. Although I do prefer a nice blue that is close to indigo blue.

The picture above is a shirt I'm working on. For Mokume Shibori you sew a lot of parallel lines on the item, pull the threads up tight then dye. I have this shirt almost done sewing. The purple strip along the side is some scrap fabric I'm using to hide the knots. Otherwise you get little dots up the side when you dye it. I'll put another one up the other side when I pull up the threads.