ENTWINEMENTS

This is a piece of silk crepe that I did up in technique I call bomaki. I used this technique to make the pleated leather for Sting Ray jacket.. Here the silk crepe was dyed a bright red , then the the silk was sewn into a tube that fits very tightly onto the pole ( no string involved) and then scrunched together. It was then discharged-- too much-- and overdyed. The colors are not what I wanted but good enough to try an idea that I've had for a small handbag.

The idea is to make a lined bag that will flaten into a circle when on the table, with the pleats as radii. So the circumference of the circle dictates the amount of silk required. I wanted the to have a flower of the unpleated silk in the center when the draw strings are closed.

The problem is that closed, that is draw strings a tight as possible, it still has an opening for your keys or condoms to jump out (which ever will cause the maxium disruption). Here you can see on the bottom that even the tightest gathering leaves a hole (the lining is red).

The opening on the bottom was expected and can be covered by a button sort of thing but the top remains a problem. I can try 2 drawstrings and a shorter bag that has less fabric....

This shot has some charm , the red lining was the starting color of the pleated crepe.

Posted by Karren at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

You can compare this with the instudio picture.

This is the Stringray outfit much discussed in this blog (a, b, c, d e, f, g, h i, j).

The textile center has put up pictures from the ARTWEAR IN MOTION show. They have pictures from the show and of the winners. This year's show wasn't a runway show but took place on a stage.

At the Center's website you can find info for entering next years show.

Posted by Karren at 10:33 AM | Permalink

Mirian Clayden, based just south of San Francisco, has had a line of clothing for the past 20 some years (her line). She started as a tie-dyer and has continued to dye/discharge her clothing. To a dyer, many of her designs were visually stunning, she could add just the right bit of dye or discharge. I never handled any of her clothing and do not know the quality of the construction. It looked good on the runway.

I heard that she had a stroke recently and that there are further complications. She appears too young to expect this kind of health problems. I ask if we can take a few seconds and send a silent blessing her way in this moment of personal distress.

Posted by Karren at 06:53 PM | Permalink

At the San Francisco show I took some photos, with permission, of Mark Thomas's clothing that incorporates shibori. It is all flat shibori, but this one is arashi shibori. His clothes are beautifully made, one of my criteria that is rarely met. The scarf above is silk organza. Below you can see both the back and front of the jacket, photos taken in his booth.

I did meet two of you readers, quite delightful! Now I have to get ready for Evanston, I leave next Wed.

Posted by Karren at 09:19 AM | Permalink

This is sort of shibori top (no dyeing) available at http://www.shibori.org/, click on GALLERY SHOP, then POCKETEE. Here the emphasis is on texture, no dyeing and polyester to make the pleats more robust. Issey Miyake's PLEATS PLEASE falls into thiis catagory. So does Justine Limpus Parish.

I forgot to share the free patent for making shibori clothing like this. I learned that those little things that form when you do shibori are called SHIBO---who knew, I just said poof!

Posted by Karren at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

How do we make clothing out of cloth with shibori patterns?

(To see the type of clothing I'm referring to check out Fiber Arts Design Book 7, pages 154-175 or Artwear: Fashion and Anti-Fashion, which has older work.)

Traditional shibori techniques, such as the resists shown in Wada's first book, developed in Japan, where the traditional cloth is woven 13"-15" wide. Hence most of their techniques work well on long narrow pieces of fabric. This is true of arashi shibori, you can do almost any length but widths greater than 15" are a challenge.

Our clothing designs, on the other hand,are based on flat pattern making, and work best on wide cloths, 36" being the narrowest we usually consider. Bias cut garments usually work best in the wider cloths, 54"-60".

Here are some of the solutions/compromises I see current shibori artists use:

•Use the traditional Japanese shibori techniques on narrow cloth and make the clothes from it. Make Japanese style clothes from narrow widths of cloth. Kimonos, kimono style jackets are common solutions. John Marshall's book has directions for tradtional garments and some modern adaptations. Weavers also prefer to make long narrow fabric, so many designs have evolved to make clothes from it. Cut My Cote by D. Burnham and Costume Patterns and Designs by Tilke (try the library it is a truly mind expanding book) are sources of historical designs for long narrow cloth. Piecing is also a way to get bigger cloth from narrow pieces. These designs do not have a modern fit. It can be unrewarding to invest this much time into a garment percieved as a bathrobe.

•Others use shibori techniques that work with wider cloth.

Itajame (fold and clamp), binding, capping, stitching techniques work on any width cloth. Those with a tie-dye back ground seem to be less limited by the size of the cloth, possibly because of their expeience wih large pieces and whole garments(T-shirts).

•Others adapt the techniques to the cloth they want to use. They get huge diameter stainless steel poles and lifting devices and bathtubs. Others just wrinkle the cloth on the pole to make it fit the pole they have.

Some wrap complete garments on poles, others make the cloth then think about the garment. There seems to be a different solution to these challenges for each maker-- that why each has her own style.

My solutions for these problems do not involve 24" ID stainless steel poles, that is Joan McGee. Most of my work is textural shibori including the few special garments I make for exhibitions or runway shows. Here are some photos of and outfit I made with Grace. It has both arashi and bound shibori. The dress was designed by draping some old pieces or samples (Grace and samples again) of my textured shibori. Then the pieces for the dress were planned with bound spider webs at the shoulder and hem and the shrinkage due to the pleating. The pieces were hemmed. Then I did all the shibori at the same time, including some extra pieces so that the color would match. We ended up using 5 of 6 pieces that we made. The dress was then constructed, a lot of hand stitching is needed to sew the already pleated material. There are ribbons and silk marquisette, that we dyed to match, to give structure to the dress. The hat has a red felt foundation.
Another oufit with with pleated shibori can bee seen at here.

Posted by Karren at 12:34 PM | Permalink

Carter has staying power! He started with tie-dye in the 60's , evolved his own style and now call himself a shibori artist. He makes and sells his famous "K" dress-- becoming in floaty silk chiffon. Here is a video with him, I don't know when the video was made but I think this is the big house in MA that recently burned.

Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7120955573255419230&q=dudeular

his web site

A much more informative article and one that talks about his "K" dress is this one associated whith his exhibition at the CAC in Cincinnati in 2000-2001. article

Carter's work is published in
early work in Batik and Tie Dye Techniques by Nancy Belfer
Ornament, Autumn 1997 Volume 21 No. 1
Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now, Y. Wada
You can see how he works in Textile Dyeing:The Step-By-Step Guide and Showcase
by Kate Broughton.

I have seen a large selection of his work, and to my knowlwdge he doesn't use arashi shibori techniques nor does he keep the texture. He works with acid dyes and discharges.

My observation is that working for the final effect in a pattern is different that working for a final effect in texture. At least I find that I work different.

The things I most admire about Carter's work is his unique style of patterning and is evolution, and his willingness to go for it! He will embrace anything helpful and will try many more things than most others.

Posted by Karren at 11:01 AM | Permalink