Thursday, August 11, 2011

shibori.

the past couple of days i have had the ancient japanese tradition of folding, stitching, wrapping, resisting and dyeing fabric known as shibori on the brain. i spent a couple of days researching and prepping my fabrics and yesterday did the dip ;) i did not use authentic indigo (:::pause::: what a beautiful word-i love it) for this first attempt...it's very hard to get ahold of here. i used a denim blue (indigo is traditionally used to dye denim, so i thought this would be the closest approximation) and am very happy with the results. basically, i was inspired by these ladies, began researching and ended up using this tutorial as a guideline as well as experimenting with my own pattern making. let me tell you, yesterday when i was unravelling my just rinsed creations to put on the line, my fingers stained blue...i felt like a pirate opening a long-searched for treasure chest...i could not have been happier with each reveal. i swear i was shaking a little. simply buzzing.

here i used screws with heads and wrapped thread around them:
these are rocks with elastics tied around them. i now know that i prefer the pattern on the underside, so would next time do these the opposite way:
this is a technique i 'made up'...i folded the fabric like an accordion and then clamped it with clothes pins.   i really loved this result:


the incredible mess of which there is miraculously no sign of today:
ta da!!

i really like the gradation effect on the duvet cover:
pride of place :) too bad they are a lot lighter dry than wet:

you can see the clothes pin result in the bottom left corner of this image:
and for a special little someone:
back:
and for someone who has one more month before they enter this big, bright world:
back:

i realize that there are 90 year old Japanese grandmother shibori masters out there that would put my crafting afternoon to absolute shame (exhibit A), but for a first attempt...what do you think?  feedback welcomed please!! 

5 comments:

  1. nikki!!! these are gorgeous! i think i might try this with tea towels-thanks for the inspiration!

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  2. I LOVE the onesie... too adorable. And, I must say that I kind of like the grey of the duvet and pillow cases. It's lovely.

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  3. Oh Nicole.. You are such a talented little lady. So proud of your creations. We have have a craft day together one day :) Love Andrea x

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  4. I think they're perfect! I loved making them for little ones too - I have to get to making some more.

    Keep making them!

    xo
    cortnie

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  5. thank you everyone...it's so much fun!!! cortnie- i would love to see what you've done!

    thanks for the feedback x

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