ENTWINEMENTS

I'm always suprised at a show when some one says to me that there is "nothing else like this here". I just walked down the same aisle and saw every other wearable booth with shibori. My conclusion is that they only see the pleats and haven't a clue that even a lot of tie dyed T-shirts are pleated while they are being dyed.

Most shibori is done to create patterning on the cloth. I do my share of it, as you may have seen in the stingray dress. Here are a few examples of interesting patterning crated using arashi shibori, the same pole wrapping technique I use.

This one I found on Sophie Junction's blog. It looks like the black was discharged and only part of it at that.

that was made by DanteSpirit. This one was dyed and over-dyed.

One point I'd like to make is that the same technique that makes beautiful pleats is different from what I think makes beautiful designs.

Posted by Karren at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I attended a demonstration by a silk painter at a guild meeting the other day and was suprised to hear her talk about " water based silk dyes" which she steams but uses a "fixative" which simply needs to be ironed to fix. Apparently these are French "dyes".When someone tells me that something needs to be ironed to fix it, I usually interpret that as being a resinous substance similar to extender.

This has got me curious as I have used both acid dyes and reactive dyes on
silk but have always used the appropriate vinegar or soda ash. I must admit
I have never steamed anything.From what I could get out of her the dyes come
from France and are used by the fashion houses there to dye silk. I must
admit I was impressed with the strength of colour as well as the hand of the
fabric.

Does you have any idea what these "dyes" could be?

French silk paints or dyes (the terms paints and dyes are misused interchangeably) are usually acid dyes dissolved with the acid added. Others are pigments in a thin water suspension and are really paints; these are heat set with an iron.

The biggest problem with preparing acid dyes in this manner is that some colors won't dissolve enough to give a strong color so additives are used to increase the solubility of the dyes. Traditionally this has been alcohol, but breathing alcohol vapors all day can effect the human body so some companies now use other additives such as urea or glycols.

I think that ironing is a substitute for steaming or heat setting. Most times you get even more intense colors by steaming. Did you know that you can use a dryer to heat set dry textiles?

I don't know what the fixative is, could be something to change the pH to make it set faster or a very dilute binder like those found in textile paints. The ones I've seen are thin like water.

You can make your own from the acid dyes you already have.

For further reading steam vs. chemical fixative,

Posted by Karren at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had several bloggers visit at my booth last Saturday including Alison Lee and another who visits everyday and does tie-dye parties for birthdays, for kids I think. But the most astounding visit was from Betsy from Maryland. She had bought a scarf from me at ACC Baltimore in February and saw on the blog that I was going to be in Westchester. She figured out how to take the train up and there she was in my booth! There is more than one way to have an adventure.
Betsy, I hope you had a wonderful train adventure and enjoy wearing your scarves!

Posted by Karren at 02:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was at the Westchester Craft Show and Grace went to Minneapolis. Reports to follow.

I have covered 1276 mi. since I left here last Wed. I have also read a lot of signs on the road. Here's two I'd like to share:

Exit 36
Lover
No rentry

George Bush Center for Intellegence

Posted by Karren at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

There are two events this weekend the Westchester Craft Show in White Plains NY and the ARTWEAR IN MOTION Runway Shown Mineapolis MN. I must go to NY, you can go to which ever excites you.

To sell at Westchester I have packed up 107 stars, 46 giant stars, a dozen opera shawls and sets, about 30 feathers, 8 wraps, 6 Zen Garden shawls, 7 Quetzalcoatl. a black singed shawl... I can't take everything with me , so if you want to see something specific I still have time to pack it before I leave mid-day Wed. A description of all of these is here. The pieces start at $55, an nice neck scarf is $130. Hope to see you! If you would like to try on the pieces and see which suits your wardrobe best, give us a call and we'll have tickets waiting for you at the door.

Posted by Karren at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are two mentions on the www of our award for the coppertail outfit: The Lincoln Center in Ft. Collins and Fiberarts magazine . It is also mentioned in the newst issue of Fiberarts Magazine, near the front. I don't know how they got it in so fast!

Posted by Karren at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the final entry on how I make ENTWINEMENTS scarves. The previous steps 1, 2, 3 , 4 and 5 have been published here in the blog and are discussed at greater length in my book, SHIBORI: creating color and texture on silk.

All the poles were dry when I checked them this morning. Sometimes in high humidity they don't dry overnight, but that is the exception.

Also they look good; the colors in the over-dyes are smooth and bright. Purple Passion is one of our bright, Caribbean colors. Should have named it Purple Polka in keeping with our dance theme, too late now. The purple itself is bright, and now the over- dyes seem bright too. Open we will see some of the discharge color, which is never bright, but hopefully the proportion of the dull discharge color is right so that the whole piece retains its brightness.

I have built a little stand to unwind the poles with a ball winder to collect the string as it comes off.

If you go fast enough with the crank, the string balloons out from the silk ( sorry, we all have our 10-yr. old moments). Anyhow it only takes a moment to unwrap the poles. When the silk comes off the pole side should still be all purple and the up side the colors of the over-dyes.

The pole side is to the left and the over-dye side to the right. Now the next question is did I get it discharged right; too much and you loose the purple (this did not happen because the back side is still all purple) and too little discharge and all the over dye colors have purple in them. As one opens the pleats you can see the original purple deep in the valleys of the pleats.

The bright yellows mean that I was not over-dyeing purple, that would give a very muddy color.

Now I look at the other side to see if the over-dyes penetrated thru all the layers. The over all effect is not just the upper most layer which is what you see on the top side. As I bend open the pleats on the pole or purple side I do see the bright colors peeking thru.

This is the moment of truth. No matter how many times you have done this color there are always uncontrolled parts. Once the piece looks good, a logo-- this serves as my signature on a piece--is attached. The logo is about the size of a large bead and is sewn on with some seed beads.

Here is the completed piece:

You can see that the overall color is still bright and purple. You can see that it is much smaller then when it was white silk and in fact is a nice size to throw over your shoulder.

Now arashi shibori, this process, has most often been used to create patterns/designs on cloth rather than texture. So I have stretched out part of this scarf so that you can see the type of design it creates. The piece is too big for me to get a photo of the entire piece stretched out, you are seeing about a yard of fabric.

It is not flat either so the transitions from one color to another are not visible. If I were doing arashi shibori for patterning and not pleats I would do several things differently. First I could take it off the pole before it is dry. But I would change the design too, what looks best in a pleated scarf is not the same that makes the most interesting pattern.

In part 1 of this series I said that the hems, machine-made and hand-made looked about the same after pleating. I have never had any one notice the difference, not even Grace. Here are both for your evaluation:

The upper or green hem is machine made and the lower on has hand-rolled hems on both sides. Once pleated I don't think there is a noticible difference.

Posted by Karren at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Today I will do three different processes to these poles to create the pleated scarves: discharge, over-dye and set the pleats. The previous steps 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been published here in the blog and are discussed at greater length in my book, SHIBORI: creating color and texture on silk.

DISCHARGE

We start today with 10 poles wrapped, all in Purple Passion. The first the poles are wet.

And the area around the burner is set up for discharge.

I have a 15L SS pot that I use and heat on the high btu burner. I have a yellow bucket with cold water to quench the discharge and one with a black top/seat to sit on. After the water comes to a boil, I add my discharge chemicals .

Then I place a pole on top of the pot and scoop out a cupful and pour it over the pole. I repeat until I get the discharge that I want. The discharge color here is yellow, and I want all of the visible silk to have some yellow. If I can't get the color I want I may need to add more chemicals. When I get the discharge color I want (and what I want has been determined in the design phase) I plunge the pole into the cold water to stop the discharging. With one pot of discharge solution, I can discharge all 10 poles. I do need to occasionally add more chemicals and of course it must be kept hot.
Then I wash them with Synthrapol to remove residue of discharge chemicals and smell. It would complicate my life to add dye if there are still chemicals in the silk that destroy the dyes. Easily solved with a good wash.

As always when you use Synthrapol, you must rinse, rinse, rinse until it no longer foams. Then all the discharged poles are ready for over-dyeing.

OVER-DYEING

To make the over-dyeing go quickly, I use stock solutions of each manufactured color which I have already made in these pint squirt top bottles. I also keep a gallon of water at a near boil so that I don't have to wait for the pot to boil!

I also have a burner for the over-dyes and a cradle to hold the pole.

I prepare a pot of dye by adding some stock to boiling water:

Then when it boils I use an ear syringe to dye part of the pole.

Here you can see two colors of overdye (gold and a blue red) and the discharge color (the yellow), I usually use 4-5 different colors on each pole. I prepare the pot of dye, then put some of that color on each of the poles, then I prepare the next over-dye color and apply that to each of the poles. In this case I will continue over-dyeing until all the discharge color appears to be covered ( it is never really all covered).
One of the most difficult things here is to remember what the original color is and what effect you want. None of the purple is visible, so you must have clear memory of the color to make your composition.

SETTING THE PLEATS

The setting of the texture is a 3 part process in itself and takes 45-50 minutes for each pole. So again I try to make the process more efficient by doing more than one at a time.
First the poles soak in an acid bath for 15-21 min. The pH of the acetic acid bath needs to be between 3.5-4.0 and we measure it with a pH meter, which we have calibrated in a buffer solution. Here the buffer is pH 7.0

I have an acid bath that I use for 3-4 months but the pH must stay in this range. The bath can hold 3 poles at a time.

The poles go from the acid bath to a steamer.

As you can see this is not a commercial steamer but one improvised from a large pot. It can also hold 3 poles at once. Each pole steams for 15-21 min. and then comes out and is wrapped up in towels to keep it hot while the last step is done.

It is rolled back and forth, with as much pressure as I can exert. This bends the silk at the top of the pleats and helps the pleats last. This rolling goes on for and many minutes as I can stand . It also helps to dry the silk. A lot of water is removed by the towels.

The poles must dry completely before they are removed from the poles. I set them in front of a box fan and they will be dry in the morning.

Posted by Karren at 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

So far we have made the scarves, dyed them purple, and washed and ironed them in preparation for pole wrapping . Today we will pole wrap , in a process called arashi shibori. I hope you like purple today, you will see a lot.

We have many poles of various sizes, we have 10 like this :

This is polypropylene (PP) not polyvinyl chloride (PVC) because we steam the poles and after several steaming the PVC poles change shape. These have been steamed thousands of times. The poles are 30" tall and ID of 6".

Now I was taught and wrapped my first few poles in this upright position. But since I do so much of it I built a box, with nice ball bearings, to make it easier for me to wrap. Here is the pole on the roller box

The process is to wrap string tightly over the silk and then push it to one end. The pushing is the hardest step. It can be made easier with a slippery coating on the pole. Here I am spraying it with silicone.


Now the carefully ironed silk, this one is a giant star, is arranged on the pole.

The silk fits at an angle until it touches itself, it ends up looking like the paper cores for toilet paper or paper towels with a spiral butted joint. This gives some flexibility in the size of the silk that can be wrapped, but it still works best with a narrow rectangle, it can be very long. I use masking tape to secure the silk, silk stuck to silk, not to the pole.
I use 8/4 rug warp to wrap, it is strong, cheap and undyed. I also need to protect my hand from rope cuts when I hold and tension it. I use a bundlers glove--I think they are made for people who prepare things for shipping with strapping.

Anyhow you can see the need for protection is not theoretical. Any one need pristine bundlers gloves for the left hand?
I tie the string to the pole and wrap it around my hand and begin to wrap.

The right hand tensions and spaces the string the left hand turns the pole. The left hand also pats the silk a lot to smooth it out. I wrap very tightly. After all it is the compression of the silk between the string and the pole that creates the resists. If the wrapping is too loose there won't be any resisting. I wrap for about a hand span, then stop. To keep the tension on the string I tape it down to the silk.

Now I push the wrapped silk to the right and this makes the pleats.

This is the hardest step. The more wraps you have the harder it is to push. The tighter you wrap the harder it is to push. If you only wrap 2 or 3" before you stop and push it is easy to push. But I hate to stop and start. Sometimes I forget to stop and I have the whole pole covered in beautifully spaced wraps! Ughhhh,I just can't budge it! This need a macho push (lots of upper body strength required) or I can slowly inch it all up with my fingernails. Anyhow when I get it pushed to the end, I wrap some more.

Here you can see the pleated part on the right and the just wrapped part to its left. I alternate wrapping and pushing until it is all pleated.

To be efficient when I'm dyeing I like to have more that one pole of the same color.

I try to do all 10 poles in one batch.

It will be Tues. before I'm back in the studio to discharge and dye the poles.

Posted by Karren at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is part 3, part 1 and 2 were earlier this week. Today the work is unglamorous and time comsuming-- to prepare the silk for pole wrapping it must be washed and ironed. No one ever asks how long did it take you to iron this scarf... they ask how long did it take you to pleat this scarf. The real answer is that it depends on how well ironed it was.

We left the dyed silk hanging on the clothes line. To hang it up we sorted it by style . Now it is easy to take down and store in totes until we need it. We obviously dyed more than enough for one set of poles.

When it has been decided what we need in one color it is picked from the storage totes and put into the washing machine. We wash with hot water, delicate cyle and use a bit of Orvus paste. Remember the silk went from the dye machine to be dried-- there was no washing. This is the only washing before pleating.

The hot water is to remove any excees dye ( there isn't very much). We use Orvus paste because it is cheap and leaves no residue that can interfer with subsequent dyeing. The washing machine was the first of the new generation; front loaders, water efficient ( max. water fill 6 gal. instead of 18 gal. for a top loader). Using the machine to wash the silk seems like it would be time efficient but when you have to deal with the tangled mass of silk you wonder.

You can see a mix of purple and black scarves just out of the washing machine. They have been through a fast spin cycle because we iron the silk wet, and this gives us the right moisture content.

We iron the silk with a mangle or ironer, an Ironrite, because it is perfect for flat rectangles and you can sit instead of stand. Less operator fatigue ( a phrase I learned fron the iron cleaner tube). These were manufactured in 1950's and you can still find a few around. But you have to cover the roll and maintain it.

Then the final folding and shaping is done here:

Careful work at this stage makes the wrapping go smoothly and fast. Here are many scarves ready for pole wrapping. Quite a transformation from that tangled wet mess. Now they are sensuous and smooth to the touch.

Posted by Karren at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Yesterday the scarves were made, today they will be dyed a base color. They will be dyed with Lanaset dyes, a deep rich purple--purple passion. Here is our formula and records for that color:

You can see our color swatch, 4 layers of china silk, right under the formula in the sheet protector on the left. There is also a jacquard hanky and a continuity sheet with a small swatch from every dye lot of this color. I'm a strong believer in keeping records, it is the only way I get smarter with time.

Next all 50 scarves we are going to dye have been gather together in this box. We need to weigh them to determine their mass and then calculate the amount of dye we will use. We need the dry weight to be meaningful. The box is placed on the digital balance and it is tared (that means it reads zero even though there is something on it) and then the silk is added to the box and the weight of the silk, 1462g, appears on the screen.

This is referred to as the weigh of fiber, WOF, or the weight of goods, WOG. This number is then used to calculate the correct amount of dye to get the same color.

Here you can see that the total amount of dye is 65.79g,and that it is divided up among 3 manufactured dye colors, Polar Red ( not a Lanaset dye, but compatible and adds a bright red component), violet and black. The Lanaset violet is quite bright and with the Polar Red, also bright , it is a dark and bright red purple.

These are the dye powders we will use and the amounts needed:

And we will disolve them in this water:

This is a favorite tool-- a hot plate/stirrer. The white ceramic top heats and is controlled by one dial . Underneath the top plate is a rotating magnet, the speed of rotation is controlled by the other dial. If you drop a plastic coated magnet in the water you can make the water rotate too. The heat and stirring help the dye powders to dissolve, an essential first step in dyeing.

So I weighed the Polar Red dye and added it to the beaker with the hot swirling water. Now I weigh the violet dye.

I love digital balances; the number of grams I want, 26.32g, is the number I see! Then I add the violet to the beaker:

And make sure the all of the dyes is transferred to the beaker with a wash bottle. Last the black dye is added and then all the dye is left stirring on the hot plate until used. This is done first so the dyes have ample time to dissolve.
Today we will use the small dye machine that we have :

We fill it with 100L of water and all the additives for Lanaset then adjust the pH to 5 ( a compromise, 4.5 is better for the Lanasets but Polar Red doesn't like it that low). The the silk is added and the machine runs for 10 min. This gives the additives time to saturate the silk.

The grey spot is a net laundry bag that holds the small swatches that might otherwise escape the basket. It has turned grey with use. Then we add the dissolved dye.

We pour the dye into the bath not onto the silk. The dye run begins now, the machine heats the bath up to 90°C and holds it at 90°C for 30 min. Then a cool down, back down to 40°C. All the time the silk is being moved so that the dyeing is level.

The silk is the spun to remove the water and hung to dry.

My house is identified as the one with the colors out front.

Posted by Karren at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This is the first entry in this week's series of how an ENTWINEMENTS scarf is made. This is an artisan process, it is done in my studio. It does NOT include the designing, color nor style. Designing is a time consuming step that has already been completed when this production process begins. I will illustrate with the production of Giant Star.

The starting materials are 5 or 6mm china silk fabric and silk thread. This is a very light weight, notice you can see thru one layer, plain weave silk also called habutai. mm stand for momme and is the weight of silk fabric, the larger the number the heavier the same size piece of fabric. The most common weight of china silk used in this country is 10mm, twice the weight of this silk. I use the lighest weight because I put so much yardage into each scarf I don't want it to feel like wearing a yoke.

The reason that the scarves are so big is that pleating reduces the footprint of the cloth usually to a third.
That is if you start with silk cloth 108 inches long and pleated it with the pleats on the cross grain the cloth will appear about 36 inches long when you are done. Granted there are many variations to get more or less fabric involved in the pleating but this will serve to illustrate why the begining sizes are so large, not at all scarf like. The most of our pleats are on the bias...., any how all of that is figured out in the designing process. Here is a length of china silk cut for a giant star.

Big enough to make a dress!

So the silk from the bolt is cut to size and now must be hemmed with silk thread so that the threads dyes to match the cloth. Some of the hems are hand-rolled hems and some are machine rolled hems. Here is hand rolled hem:

And here is a machine made hem:

The photos are not the same scale, the machine hem is only slightly wider than the hand-rolled but flater. Now one can tell the difference but after they are dyed and pleated there is no noticable difference. I'll try to get photos at the end to show you.

Now working with this thin silk has it challenges, the fabric structure is easily damaged. Too much agitaion (dyeing or washing) and the normal toothed feed-dogs can damage the silk. We have a machine set up just to sew hems on this delicate silk; rubberized feed dogs, a tiny hole in the throat plate and fine sharp needles.

We do a scroll hem and the scroll part is attached to the machine in front of the presser foot. Thus there is still good pressure on the feed-dogs and the silk feeds smoothly. There is a funny reflection in the photograph that looks like a piece of plastic in there.

With everything set up properly the silk just zips throught the hemmer.

Now the scarves are ready to dye a base color. Tommorrow I think we'll dye purple passion.

Posted by Karren at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I am trying to find a fail resist recipe for a rice resist paste that will take many dips of indigo - any ideas please---Mary

is a comment left on an old entry.

Since I do shibori, in which the resists are created by compressing the cloth, I would recommend that. It will take any number of indigo dips.

But I think that you mean a chemical resist that you apply to the surface of the cloth. I have little personal experience with this kind of resists so all I can do is refer you to others.

Joan over at magic of light, mystery of shadow has recently done a post where she did 4 dips with a rice paste resist to get to this:

Wax is used as a resist and it is called batik and Rozome. Betsy Sterling Benjamin has a wonderful book, The World of Rozome: Wax -Resist Textiles of Japan. There are many books on batik.

Another technique used with rice paste resists is Katazome-- Japanese for a technique where rice paste is applied thru a stencil and then the dyes, including indigo, are brushed on. This avoids the problems of soaking the rice paste and John Marshall practices and teaches this technique and has a website with a how-to section and a video.

Other chemical resists that have been/are used are mud, dextrins, gutta and a some special
products developed by dye companies .

Sometimes the resists must be applied to both sides of the cloth for this kind of long exposure to dye. An overview of all techniques ( not a how-to book) is in the amazing book, Indigo by Jenny Balfour-Paul.

I hope this points you in the right direction.

Posted by Karren at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)