Shibori Workshop - Part One

My 3-d students were extremely fortunate to have worked with renown Shibori/Indigo Dye Textile Artist, Glennis Dolce, also known as Shibori Girl.  See here blog and info here.  She found us thru my blog that is highlighted on Jude Hill's blog., and contacted me asking if my students and I would be interested in taking a workshop with her??  Are you serious???   YES!!!  So on June 16th, several of my most serious art students had their parents drive them out to my studio in Anaheim Hills for this all day workshop.  I think about 12 kids showed up and it was just the right amount for my studio space.

Glennis started by showing many beautiful examples of Shibori, and also discussing how indigo dye is made.  It was extremely interesting and I know we all learned so much from her vast knowledge.

Here Glennis is showing us the correct process for dyeing the fabric in the indigo vat.  She is also demonstrating how to dye in the ombre technique, from light to dark.

Our first project was to do some simple lines and shapes in the Shibori technique.  Here are Aman and Karisma working on their pieces.  I also got to participate.  My lines and shapes are below.  First we drew them with a pencil, then we stitched them with a basting stitch with a big knot at one end and a long tail at the other.

Next we dunked the cotton lawn cloth ( a tad thinner then regular cotton) in water, then pulled the tails as tightly as possible and knotted them, then submerged them in our first indigo dip (below).

Here are my second and third dips.  With each dunk the fiber gets a deeper blue after we take it out of the vat and it hits the air.  Oxygen turns the dye from a turquoise color to a brilliant blue.  We also rinsed the cloth between each dip in another vat of water.    

Finally my fourth dip and rinse.  Now the really fun part comes when you get to pull out all those stitches to reveal your design (below).

 

Here are Nikki and Phoebe with their first project, and then all the kids results below.

Our second project was to learn to make a dragonfly.  We where all so excited to do this.  Again we started by drawing our design, then using basting stitches for each shape.  But the tail was done in a very cool, different technique.  We made a pleat where the tail was then stitched thru the bottom of the pleat.  See below.

To see the results scroll down to Part Two.