Vacation and Shibori Pillow

Well I’m back from vacation and a good time was had by all. Thought I’d post a couple of pictures of my most favorite place to be in Vancouver and that’s the Spanish Banks. Think of Vancouver as being in the centre of a horseshoe and the spanish banks along the one side of the horseshoe.

When the tide is out you can walk out from the shore about a kilometre or so and the sight is phenomenal. I always love going there and if I only had one spot to visit this would be it.

Starting out at the shore of the Spanish Banks, Vancouver, Canada.

Looking out to the middle channel from the shore.

The beach is a popular place for dogs and owners so the shore is divided into an area for the dogs to play.

Looking east along the tidal flat to the city of Vancouver.

Starfish stranded at low tide.

Yours truely, its all about the tie-dye.

In front of a harbour signal light.

Close-up of the above shot standing about a couple of yards in front of the signal light.

Dead crab.

Looking back to shore from the edge of the channel at low tide.

One more picture of another harbour light that marks the opening of the channel into the Vancouver harbour. At this point the tide has turned and is starting to come in and now it’s a race back to the shore before we get stranded.

Back at the car, big owie. As we were rushing back to shore I turned back to see how far we had come and ploughed into a log mid-stride. You get submerged logs from the logging industry spotted along the coast and ships and boats really have to keep an eye out for these hazards. This log reminded me of the ones you see along the roadside as telephone poles. It was partially submerged and I didn’t see it until I was on top of it. I had a choice of either falling face forward or twisting backwards which I did but unfortunately my leg brushed up against it as I fell. LOL, I hadn’t planned on taking a swim.

Another favorite spot of mine is Granville Island. It’s an artsy spot with lots of little craft shops and a wonderful market that has the most yummy fritters full of apple or raspberry filling. The amazing thing about these fritters is that they are huge and one fritter will easily satisfy three people and they are made fresh on the spot. Another favorite shop is of course Maiwa that sells all the dye supplies that a person could want.

Maiwa also has a shop where they sell clothing and linens and while I was there I bought a pillow case that I became enamoured with. Lol, I admit to buying it so I could try and figure out how to do the same process at home…well that and it was gorgeous.

Pillow from Maiwa.

Flip side of the pillow.

Close-up of shibori work.

I have an idea of how the pillow was made but I’m not positive so if any one has any ideas let me know.

Karen

Vancouver…

Well I’m off to the airport in a couple of hours and from there to vancouver for ten days. Will blog when I get back, everyone else have a good summer/winter?

Karen

Shibori Tool

I’ve had a few requests for where I got this tool. I replied individually like I normally do to posts then it occured to me that I could save myself some trouble if I just post the link online.

I bought this tool a couple of years ago while on vacation in Vancouver at a shop called Maiwa and they carry quite a few supplies from Japan. Unfortunately the price seems to have gone up from the $19.95 I paid to $39.95. I thought I’d post a few pictures so people could see what the tool looks like and whether or not they want to spend that kind of money on such a small device. I believe this is the same as the “shibori kit” but maybe people should write and ask before ordering.

Disassembled tool.

Needle tip.

Tool clamped to bookcase.

Box view 1.

Box view 2 showing different tying techniques.

Box view 3 with picture of tool and price.

Instructions in Japanese, English instructions are provided as well I just don’t know where I’ve put them.

Karen

Kumo – Spider Web Shibori.

I have a secret project that I’ve been working on so I can’t blog pictures of it until later after the gift has been received but I can blog the fabric I made that’s a part of the gift.

I love Shibori (The Japanese art of fabric tying and folding) but really have been too lazy to try out many of the techniques as they are fairly labor intensive, it was always “some day”. Well I haven’t done much lately in the way of dyeing so decided now would be an opportunity to try out some Kumo or Spiderweb shibori for the piece of fabric I had in mind for my project.

I started out dyeing a parfait in turquoise and fuchsia, not too dark as I wanted contrast between these colours and the overdye I had in mind.

The photo is on the dark side.

Next I used a Japanese tool that screws onto a ledge and has a fine pick/needle to hold the fabric while you work on it. I’d tell you the name but the box is written in Japanese.

Shibori tool for holding fabric while you tie it off.

Next I bound the fabric with nylon thread spaced throughout the yardage. I started off with fairly big spiderwebs but then as I grew more used to tying off the webs I spaced them closer together. I had started off tying each kumo separately but then read a book and realised that I didn’t have to do that and just went from kumo to kumo carrying along the thread as I went securing it at the base of each kumo before moving on.

Fabric all bound up with kumos otherwise known as spider webs.

After binding all of my fabric I soaked it for about 1/2 hour or so in soda ash solution and then spun it out in the washing machine to get rid of excess solution (make sure you don’t rinse). I then made up some dye solution of ProChem’s eggplant and put the fabric into a container and poured the dye on top. I then let the material batch for about three hours before rinsing and washing out.

Over-dyed fabric with eggplant.

Using a stitch ripper I very carefully picked out the nylon thread and spread out my beautiful shibori. I decided to wash the fabric once again just in case any excess dye was left over from being trapped in the folds of material.

Thread removed.

Opening folds.

Fully opened.

After drying the fabric I ironed it.

Ironed fabric.

Closeup of the spider web and the thread lines caused by the resist of the nylon thread.

I have to admit that I was quite impressed with the results, lol, I don’t want to cut into this but what am I going to do hoard it? It looks pretty good with the project it will be paired with.

Edited to note: I have had so many requests for where I got the tool that my next posting has the link for the page on the Maiwa website as well as some closeups of the tool in case people want to try to make their own.

Karen

Gradations and a tee.

It’s been a while since I last posted but I’ve been on a reading jag for the last month or so. My daughter passed on the twilight series and then I went on from there.

I bought some baby onsies and toddler t-shirts to tie dye and decided that since I needed some more lemon yellow to go ahead and order a few extra baby colours as well.

I have four gradations below:

Baby blue > Wisteria > Baby pink > Seafoam all from Dharma. Colour corrected with Photoshop because they were so pale. The pink is a bit to intense at the darkest level and the Wisteria is a very subtle blue with a hint of purple in it. This is a colour that might do better at a more intense level.

The colours are pretty light to start off with so it was somewhat of a waste to do a six level gradation with them but I’m glad I did the gradation because I like the baby pink and blue at a less intense colour. The only problem being that a tee-shirt usually does better with a more saturated dye as it’s thicker material so I’ll probably go with the darkest shade and see how that turns out. I thought the Wisteria would be more purple but I was confusing this colour with the samples of ProChem’s wisteria.

I have been doing crafts but they are all things that I’ve done before so I haven’t posted them but I did do a tie-dye tee for my son’s girlfriend so thought I’d post that as well:

Basic turquoise, fuchsia and lemon yellow.

Karen