Last of Charlene's Shibori

Here are the last pictures of Charlene's shibori. Alas, on Monday I have to give them all back to her.  She counted them before she loaned them to me so I can't even "forget" one or two of them. They are in no particular order other than my favorite is first.

 This is a fold and stitch resist method named Ori-nui.  Charlene says when it is done right it will look like a row of teeth.

 This is another stitch resist method.  On this one Charlene used a pleater to gather the fabric evenly before dyeing it.

 I should have shown you this one yesterday when I showed you the other chevron piece. This one has a tag that says to iron 1" pleats all in the same direction before wrapping.

 A nice example of fold and clamp.

Last, this piece shows multiple techniques. The background is a potatoe dextrine resist.  The white is a stitch and gather technique.  The piece is large enough that when I was a little chilly in my office this last week, I wore it as a shawl.  Looked good on me!

More of Charlene's work

Here a few more pieces of Charlene's shibori pieces.

 These first two were first printed with a spiral plate and then pole wrapped.

 

These next two were parallel wrapped in one direction and dyed, and then wrapped in the opposite direction and dyed to make a plaid.  You can see the step 1 fabric and step 2 fabric side by side.

 

 This is a chevron stripe pattern.  The note attached to it says: "1) Brown fiber reactive dye. 2) Chevron.  3) Discharge. 4) Turquoise fiber reactive dye."  The Chevron pattern looks like the material was folded with nice crisp folds to form pleats and then wrapped in a diagonal wrap.  I am interested to try this method.

This last piece for today has stitching marks along the long sides of the fabric.  I assume it was made by stitching the fabric into a tube that fit the pole and then sliding and scrunching it on the pole.

Charlene Huntley

Charlene is part of the surface design play group in which I participate. When she heard I was doing shibori, she pulled out examples of hers from a class she had taken.  I begged to take some of the examples home to photograph and post here. Over the next couple of days, as I have time, I will put up her beautiful work for your ooooos and aaaaahs.

 

 These are spiderwebs shibori or kumo. Instructions are on page 68 of Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing.  Here are the instructions: "The cloth, dampened slightly, is pushed up from underneath by the left index finger, pulled taut (they use a hook but I just use my other hand), and drawn into folds. With the shaped cloth held firmly in the left hand, the dampened thread is bound from the base of the unit, where the folds are gathered, to the top.  The spacing of the thread is even.The thread is brought back to the starting point at the base by making several turns around the bound cloth. The thread is neither knotted or cut but is carried to the next unit."  I use the kamosage knot before I carry it over to the next unit.(page 57)

 Aren't these lovely mandalas? They are formed from a stitching technique called Japanese Larch or karamatsu shibori. The material is folded in half and rows of small stitches are taken in a semi-circle on the fold.  When the stitching is complete, the lines of stitching are pulled tight then dyed.  A "perfect" example will have a row of little dots down the middle of the fold from the knots.