More Arashi Shibori

After experimenting with arashi shibori on cotton, (see the previous post) we graduated to using silk. I painted bright splotches of color on the silk scarf with Procion MX fiber reactive dye. I washed it out well to remove any residual dye and the alkaline soda ash. Then we gathered the fabric on a PVC pipe by wrapping it with a thin rope and scrunching it up. The Procion MX dye doesn't always work the same on silk as it does on cotton. The blue pigment washes out if it's in a blend or added afterwards. So, when I wanted purple, I painted red dye over the blue. When I wanted green, I painted yellow dye over the blue dye.

Since the black Procion MX dye becomes red on silk after the blue washes out, I  used acid dye for the black, which I painted on the parts of the fabric which were showing between the scrunched up rope. I placed the fabric-wrapped pipe in a plastic bag to protect it from condensation. Then I steamed it in the turkey roaster for 45 minutes, making sure the silk stayed well below 185 degrees so it wouldn't be damaged.

I immediately rinsed out the excess black dye. Then I ironed it to remove the pleats made by the rope.  It looks shiny and iridescent, like soap bubbles. We have a few more scarves ready to do arashi shibori on tomorrow.

Shibori Dyeing

Larry accordian-folded an eight-sided triangle and created a resist with two c-clamps, which is his version of Itajime Shibori. 

After removing the c-clamps from the itajime shibori, a beautiful kaleidescope pattern is revealed. 

Our favorite type of shibori is called arashi shibori. We wrapped a length of green cotton around a pole, holding the fabric in place by wrapping a crochet thread around and around the pole at 1/2 inch spacing, pushing up the fabric to create folds. We painted the exposed fabric with bleach to discharge the green dye. After rinsing out the bleach, we painted on splotches of Procion MX fiber reactive dye in gold, violet, navy blue and maroon.

My favorite part of arashi shibori is revealing the pattern after letting the dyes set. 

I love the tiger stripes created by arashi shibori. This was our experimental model. Next time we will try it on silk, possibly using Washfast acid dyes, at least for the black stripes.