Slow Fiber Studios in Berkeley was founded by Yoshiko I. Wada in an effort to teach worldwide textile techniques. She has written beautiful books regarding Shibori. The word "shibori" incorporates a wide ranging set of practices from Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, China, India, and a few from Berkeley! I love the indigo practices in Japan where 1000s of knots are dyed to create patterns on cotton and silk. The methods we learned were using polyester, heat, stitching and dye. First we learned about folding paper. Each fold was folded twice and pressed with a hot press. We created 2 copies to make a form. We tucked the polyester into the form and pressed it. Next we used fabric dye painted on paper. To make the polyester folds permanent, presses at 400 degrees were used to break down the fabric chemical bond. Our other method was to stitch folds into polyester, press and dye them-- achieving more intricate fabrics. Here are some of the projects I made and saw in the two-day workshop.
polyester folded, pressed, dyed, pressed again.
One of my paper molds.
the paper molds with polyester inside ready for pressing
More stitched shibori with strips
stitched shibori. Red thread on polyester with green and yellow dye by Elisa Ligon, one of our instructors
A silk lamp by Elisa Ligon