A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

No Strings Attached Shibori - Part Deux



As I mentioned in my previous post, I planned an over-dye session, so I wasn't really concerned when three turned out kind of boring.


This becomes much more interesting after a second trip through.


The patterning is so much better after the over-dyeing.

These were half yard cuts of my usual mercerized cotton fabric.  I mixed up a half cup of dye for each with about a teaspoon or less of dye powder.  I soaked the fabric in soda and wrung it dry in my washer before I wrapped the poles.  The fabric was still slightly damp when I added the dye -- I've found that this works better with damp rather than dry fabric -- the dye seems to spread more easily.

I laid the pipe with scrunched fabric on a plastic surface (the lid to a large plastic tub) and slowly poured the dye over the fabric.  I rolled the fabric in the dye that pooled on the surface and rubbed with my gloved hands to make sure that the dye was fairly evenly distributed. 
I would have gotten much different results had I dipped the pipes or used stronger dye solutions -- something to try on a different day.  And another trip through the land of wrapping and dyeing for these guys is not out of the question.

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