Silk Scarf by Pat Spark with Arashi Shibori resist. Walnut hull dyebath.
I have been doing some arashi shibori (pole wrapped/ tie resist) with both eco dyes and synthetic acid dyes on silk scarves recently. I haven't photographed the process, but I thought maybe this article that I wrote about 10 years ago might be helpful in explaining the process. In this case, I was doing arashi shibori on wool felt.
More Experiments with Shibori
Pat Spark, Oregon, © 1995
........... the inspiration to try some variations with shibori on
felt. I had seen tie-dye techniques used
on felts by artists, Chad Alice Hagen
(USA) and Beret Aksnes (Norway)
and I was very intrigued with the possibilities of tie-dye, but I had never
taken the time to try it myself. (In the
60’s, I did help support myself by tie-dyeing T-shirts and selling them at
craft fairs. But that was before I began
to felt and it seems like another life-time ago.)
I began my research with an article
written by Cheri Bridges for the Seattle Weavers’ Guild Bulletin in Feb.
1993. The article cited a few articles
on the subject. (See bibliography.) As luck would have it, I was able to find
my copy of the magazine which contained these articles. After reading these sources and experimenting
with the technique, I have come up with the following information:
The word shibori is Japanese and comes from the verb shiboru which means “to wring, squeeze, and press”. When shibori
is done to a fabric, areas are compressed in some manner which causes the
compressed areas to resist dye. The
fabric can be bound, pleated, stitched, wrapped, etc. to create the resist
areas. If the fabric is wrapped around a
pole and then bound in some way, the technique belongs to a family called bòmaki shibori (pole-wrapped resist
dyeing).
Arashi shibori is a type of pole wrapping in which lines are created
across the fabric. The term arashi means storm and to many people, the pattern
created by the dyed and resisted areas of cloth looks like rain being driven
from the sky by wind. I tried several
variations of arashi shibori and then
I tried a sample of mokume shibori. This shibori
method is a stitching technique in which the pattern created by the dyed
and resisted areas looks like wood grain.
(Mokume means wood
grain.)
Materials for Arashi Shibori:
The pole: The cylinder must be the same size from one
end to the other. Finding a pole which
would fit in my dye kettle and which
could take the high temperatures of a simmering dye bath has been very difficult. I have not found anything yet which is easily
available, and which will resist the heat.
In my reading, I found that PVC pipe would certainly not resist the high
temperatures. At a plumbing and irrigation
store, I found ABS pipe which was
supposed to withstand higher temperatures than PVC. It was inexpensive and a 10” length fit
nicely into my canning kettle sized dye pot.
I was able to cut a grove into the top to help secure the binding string
and this was helpful in the binding process.
Unfortunately, it did warp with the heat. I had an acrylic spaghetti storage container
which was a symmetrical cylinder. It had a small lip on top, so the bound felt
could be pushed against it without any danger of it slipping off the end of the
cylinder. It worked for about four dye
baths and then it warped. I had a heavy
plastic container which used to contain GOOP, a grease cutting hand
cleaner. This container gets slightly
flaccid when it is hot, but so far it has not warped. However, I only have one of these containers
and it has taken my family years to go through the 4 1/2 pound jar of
GOOP. I was dyeing pieces of felt which
were about 12” by 18”. The GOOP
container is 16 1/4” around and 8” tall.
The acrylic container and the ABS pipe were 14 1/4” around and 10”
tall. I had no trouble wrapping the
fabric pieces around either sized cylinder.
D’Arcie Beytebiere (see bibliography) suggests that the cylinder should
be a couple of inches greater than the width of the fabric. She also suggests using a stainless steel
pipe for high temperature dyeing, but I have not found one yet. (NOTE: Since I wrote this article, I have found that I can use the ABS pipe and it doesn't distort too badly.)
The felt: I made a thin felt of white merino. I used two thin layers of carded batt and
laid them at right angles to one another
on a bamboo mat. When they were laid
out, the fleece layers were about 22” x 56”.
I covered the fleece with nylon net and poured hot, soapy water through
a sieve over the wool/nylon net stack. I
flattened the stack to remove the air, lifted the net and folded over the edges
to strengthen them. Thin places were
filled with more dry fleece and the net was replaced over the wet fleece. The
excess water was sopped up with a towel and cold, soap gel was added for
lubrication. Using a Tubberware juice
container lid in each hand, I rubbed the surface for about 1/2 hour. The wet wool was rolled in the bamboo mat,
around a large wooden rod. The water
which drained off was squeezed into a bucket and a dry towel was wrapped around
the bamboo roll. The roll was tied in
several places and I used my forearms to rotate it back and forth for 15
minutes. I
untied the roll, re-rolled it from the other end, covered it with a towel, tied
it together and rotated it again for 15 minutes. After rinsing, the resulting piece of felt
was ready for dyeing. (I didn’t want the
felt to be too hard because I knew the dyeing would continue the fulling
process.) The felt had come in about an
inch on all sides. I cut it into
sections about 12” x 18” so it could be wrapped onto the cylinders. The felt
was still damp but not drippy when I wrapped it.
The thread: I used cotton postal twine for the pole
wrapping techniques. When I did the
stitched technique, I used heavy button/carpet thread.
The dye: I used
Profast Acid dyes for wool. They come
from PRO Chemical and Dye Inc.; PO
Box 14; Somerset,
MA 02726;
1-508-676-3838. The color was WF Acid
Brilliant Blue, #490. A scant tsp. of
dye was dissolved in a small amount of
water. This solution was added to 2 1/2
gallons of simmering water. The stitched or wrapped felt was wetted in warm
water and then added to the dyebath.
Taking 1/2 hour or so, I raised the temperature to a simmer and then
added vinegar (approximately 3/4 cup).
The heat was reduced to keep the bath at a simmer and the felt stayed in
the dyebath for another 45 minutes or so. (The dyebath was stirred occasionally.) The felt was removed from the dyebath,
allowed to cool slightly and then the threads were cut away. By this time the felt had cooled enough to be
rinsed well. The felt was not quite hard
enough for me, so I rubbed it slightly on my glass washboard. I rubbed it from the backside because I
didn’t want to blur the edges of the resist.
I then blocked it out with my hands to straighten the edges and spread
it to dry. The final pieces were 2-3 inches smaller than the original fleece
batts on all sides.
ARASHI SHIBORI (Pole Wrapped Resist, Driven
Rain Design)
1. Lay the
cylinder in your lap.
2. If you want the
stripes to angle from upper left to lower right, start at the upper right hand
corner of the felt and wrap it clockwise around the cylinder, keeping the
fabric flat against the cylinder. (See
diagram) If you want the stripes to go
in the opposite direction, start in the upper left hand corner of the felt and
wrap the felt counter-clockwise. If you
want the stripes to be straight rather than diagonal, start the wrapping along
the top edge of the felt and do not wrap it around the pole. Let any excess cloth hang off the bottom of
the cylinder.
3. Secure the
felt to the pole with a thread which has been tied with a slip knot. Pull the thread snugly.
4. Wrap the
thread over the felt, around the
cylinder. Keep the thread tight and
don’t let go of the tension. The spacing
of the rounds will determine the spacing of the stripes. I started with my wraps around 1/4 inch
apart.
5. When
several wraps have been done, push the
bound fabric towards the end of the cylinder.
Don’t let go of the thread. Be
sure to keep it under tension!
6. Continue
to bind and gather the felt, wrapping any additional felt around the pole as
you go.
7. When all
of the felt has been gathered onto the cylinder, tie off the thread. The felt is ready for dyeing.
Variations:
1. Stripe Width Changes: When wrapping the felt around the pole, vary
the distance between the wraps of thread.
They can be close together or far
apart and the strips of area open to be
dyed will be narrow or wide.
2. Puckers and Folds: When wrapping the felt around the pole, don’t
keep it flat against the cylinder. Put
in little tuck or bunch together the felt to make a pucker. After dyeing,
these areas will be more irregular so the stripe is not so apparent.
3.
Twists:
When the felt is being pushed up the pole, twist it to the side instead
of pushing straight up.
This will create
a dashed type stripe.
(But it’s very hard to do with the felt.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Seattle Weavers ‘ Guild Bulletin
Supplement Feb. ‘93; Easy Shibori- A Place To
Begin by Cheri Bridges.
Threads Magazine; No. 8, Dec.
‘86/Jan.’87.
P. 20-21 “New Twist on Resist” by Yoshiko Wada;
P. 22-24 “A Working Method for the Home” by
Shelley Karpilow;
P. 24-27 “A Textural
Approach to Arishi Shibori” by D’Arcie Beytebiere.
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