JUNE WORKSHOP - INDIGO DYEING WITH SHIBORI

Our June workshop was awaited by many with great excitement. Ruth Brown of Stone Creek Silk arrived despite the wet weather over in Yorkshire to demonstrate indigo dyeing with shibori techniques. Above is one of Ruth's striking indigo pieces. Click on Ruth's website above to see more of her work.

We made up a vat of indigo dye and then proceeded to prepare our fabrics, silk and cotton, by sewing, tieing and clamping. This photo shows a piece of cotton being prepared with strong synthetic thread.

Maggie and Muriel with their hands in the indigo vat. The fabric had to be held under the surface for 5 minutes. We had to be careful not to disturb the surface which would have added oxygen to the vat thereby reducing the dyeing qualities of the dye.
Note the green tinge of the fabric this is the colour the fabric is when first removed from the vat. Only when it is oxygenated in the air does it turn to blue.

Out to dry, in the afternoon we tried a range of larger samples, amongst them scarves that were clamped and wrapped around poles shibori style.

A hand stitched row of leaves although some of the group thought that they would make good fish. Belinda who completed them was very pleased with the result.

Annette clamped this scarf to get this striking effect.

This is a napkin that Denise sewed in a spiral resulting in this effective end result.

Maggie used a predyed scarf that she folded into a cone before knotting it several times.
Joy tied this chiffon scarf and this delicate pattern was achieved.

A bold pattern achieved by Pauline by tieing large marbles with string.

Beryl's butterfly was achieved by sewing the shape on to cotton, she intends highlighting the features with embroidery.

After rinsing and ironing the special effects achieved by indigo dyeing is obvious. The lack of flat colour, that is present with other dyeing methods, is the attraction of this method.This was a piece of silk satin and again the lack of flat colour creates a unique effect.