We will be doing hand stitching to create resists for dyeing in our  first Silk Shibori Session starting on 28th of July. We will also do fold and clamp (itajime).

There are many kinds of stitched designs and a few of the Japanese names are mokume, ori-nui, maki-age.  I'm not trying to teach you Japanese but if you search this blog for these terms you will find  much information.  Also see pages 85-90 of my book.  We even had a challange on maki-age and there is a lot of info and pics.

As of this moment all participants in the class are also weavers.  Some stitched shibori  can be done while weaving.  Here is an article about handwoven shibori if you have not seen much. The way you compress the cloth, and how to dye the resisted cloth are the same whether you have laid in the the gathering threads while weaving or used a needle after the cloth is woven.  Patterns and spacing are related too. Hand stitched, not done on the loom, is more versatile.  It is hard to create images on the loom.

 Here are pictures of a woven shibori project start to finish.   Weavezine recently had an article about woven shibori on a rigid heddle loom.  The weakest link in most of these projects is the dyeing of the shibori.  I hope this short sesion in stitched shibori would lead to  sucessful dyeing of any future  shibori project, woven or not, undertaken.

 

Posted by Karren at 12:04 PM | Permalink

To accomodate prearanged events, it is vacation time after all, I have changed the dates and structure.
The instructions have been moved from Sunday to two week days.  You still need time to do some stitching at home.  We have 3 participants and it is a go.  Room for 2 more people each week.

We have chosen these dates:

Session 1-stitched resists
Tuesday, 28 July. 7-9 PM -meet to receive materials and instruction on stitched resists
Sunday, 2 August , 1-6 PM- dye prepared samples

Session 2-fold and clamp
Monday, 3 August- meet for more instruction, materials, trouble shooting
Sunday, 9 August-1-6PM -dyeing and photos

They are not mutually exclusive; you can do more stitching for 9th and you can do some folding and clamping on the 2nd.The best way to do this is to take both sessions; you will learn things you might want to try again; but life is very congested for most people these days and if you want to take only one session you can.

Both sessions: $140 with book, $120 if you already have my book. 
One session: $90 with book, $70 if you already have my book.

Posted by Karren at 07:15 PM | Permalink

I knew that the silk shibori class was too close to the dates to get much enrollment but now I've had a request to do it later.  So we will do it later, don't have dates yet.

 

In August the Sundyes will be small projects completed in one day they will all be natural dyes: Osage Orange (a Yellow), Madder, and Indigo again.  With this pallette a wide range of colors can be achieved, for example indigo over Osage Orange for greens and indigo over madder for purples.

Posted by Karren at 10:33 AM | Permalink

   

Shibori on silk

12, 19, 26 July (3 weeks)

 fold & clamp, stitched, capped
Meet at the Entwinements studio Sunday afternoon, 1-6PM
5 Students, $120 includes materials or $140 with book (autographed)

No prior knowledge of shibori or dyeing is needed and all levels are welcome.  We will explore the techniques that only require simple tools but can create many interesting patterns such as  fold & clamp (itajime), hand-stitching (mokume, ori-nui, etc.) and capping (maki-age).

•    Each student will receive 10 sample size pieces of silk to learn the techniques, a marking crayon and some other materials
•    Entwinements has a large supply of templates and clamps for your use in fold and clamp
•    Appropriate dye baths in colors requested by the students will be  available the 2nd and 3rd weeks. Five colors each week.
•    Each student can have additionally one large (about 1 yd.) piece of silk of their choice (from the samples) for a final project
•    Each student will supply their own hand sewing tools and have a copy of SHIBORI: creating color and texture on silk.

12  JULY
Receive materials,  Instructions and demonstrations on each technique.  Look at samples and plan your work.  Homework is to do the hand stitching.

19 JULY
Bring stitched samples for dyeing.  Other samples can be folded and clamped at the studio.  We will then soak and dye the samples that are ready.  There will be 5 requested colors and you can dye in each pot if you wish.  Open samples and study  the results.  Plan final project.   Stitching or other prep work can be done at home .

26 JULY
•    Final dye day; 5 more pots of colors the students request.  You can dye in one or all pots.  Open and display and photography of all projects.


You can see examples in the book or at entwinements.com.  With only 5 participants we should be able to accommodate to everyone.  Just let me know what you would like.  Please email (karrenatentwinements.com, change the at to@) with any questions.

Posted by Karren at 08:09 PM | Permalink