Rust-Dyed Shibori: Preparation

After reading Alice Fox’s book, Natural Processes in Textile Art, I wanted to experiment with different wetting agents in the rust shibori process. I used 3 different agents: (1) sea water from the Atlantic ocean, (2) black tea which I made by steeping loose tea in hot water, and (3) a 50-50 mixture of vinegar and water. I soaked my fabrics separately in each of these liquids before doing any fabric manipulation. In the past, when I did rust dyeing in a dishpan during the summer, I used only a 50-50 mixture of vinegar and water. This time, I wanted to see if I could get different effects and different patterns using liquids other than diluted vinegar.

For my rust dyed shibori experiments, I rolled fabric around iron pipe. I had previously tried some clamped shibori but it was unsuccessful because I didn't have rusty objects of the same size to put in between clamps and because I had not very smartly tried it using plastic clamps and then steamed the fabric. 

For the arashi shibori examples, where the fabric was rolled around the rusty iron pipes, my original intention was that I would wrap string around the pipes, just as I do in regular arashi shibori, and then compress the fabric along the length of the pipes. When I tried to do this, it was impossible. The pipes I used were very rough, and I could not push the fabric down along them. So, I then decided to wrap the string tightly to see if I could get strong string impressions that would give the effect of arashi shibori. This is how the fabric looked on the rusted pipes.

I will show the results in my last two posts.