Shibori Love Day 2 – Time for Indigo

My Shibori Love series picks up with Day 2 attending a Shibori/Indigo multiday workshop at Aya Fiber Studio.  After the first day of prepping fabric samples with different Shibori patterns, I was excited to finally dip them in the indigo vats to watch the magic happen.

Here is my photo again from Shibori Love – Day 1, where I shared how I created these different patterns. 

Indigo Vat has a Flower?

First thing we did was check our vat.  We were using the pre-reduced synthetic indigo vat.  In the clip below, you can see the indigo ‘flower’ in the center.  The flower is composed of undissolved sediment that has gathered together and floats on top.  Many will scoop out the ‘flower’ before they start dipping all your fabric. We left it in to do our sample check, but it was removed before we all started dipping our pieces.  The indigo flower is saved to be added back to the vat when you close it up at end of session and stirred back in.   

Watch the Indigo Magic

In the video above and (even in the photo below), notice how the fabric swatches originally come out  a beautiful turquoise color.  As the dyed fabric oxidizes, the gorgeous vibrant indigo color reveals itself .   I wish there was a way to actually freeze the oxidation process as I loved that turquoise color.

Look at the photo above in top left corner.  Those were my pebbles bound in fabric after one dip in the indigo vat.  I dipped a second time and let it sit.  You can see in the bottom right photo what it looked like after it dried before I removed rubber bands and pebbles.  

In the top right corner was my fabric that was bound using the tatsumaki technique.  I rolled half the fabric in one piece of rope towards the center and then wrapped the other half in another piece of rope in the opposite direction towards center.  The fabric was then tightly scrunched up together and the two ropes were tied together on both ends of the fabric to keep it all together before dipping in the indigo vat.  

The bottom left photo was us learning how to slowly stir the vat without introducing any extra oxygen…stir slowly in one direction.  Then slowly stop and change directions to mix.  (I told you these vats were temperamental) 

For the Love of Indigo

Oh how I loved the vibrant indigo colors of my samples.  And aren’t they so pretty drying on the clothesline? 

In order from left to right you can see my practice samples

1. nemaki shibori – my wrapped pebbles
2. itajime shibori – my circle blocked/clamped fabric
3. tatsumaki shibori – wrapping my fabric around the slinky
4. tatsumaki shibori – wrapping fabric around the rope
5. this was the pattern I made up by pinching and tying in sections – bottom right photo above in prepped fabric photo
6. scrunched and wrapped with string pattern.

Patience is needed

Due to all the prepwork involved, this could be a very therapeutic art.  I discovered it takes more time than you might think to create these.  First, you have to prep all your fabrics.  Second, for a good indigo coverage, you don’t usually just dump it in the vat and let it sit indefinitely.  I learned you get more vibrant colors with multiple short tips.  The indigo clings to your fabric and can only take in so much.  The dipped fabric then needs time to oxidize.  Next, you have to release your resist patterns by unbinding, removing stitches, or untying the strings.  Finally, it has to be rinsed very well and then dried before moving on to the ‘setting stage’ (explained in future post). 

That’s a wrap of Day 2

Thank goodness this class was a multi-day workshop.  There is still so much to do and so much to learn.  Don’t miss the upcoming post for Day 3.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about actual shibori patterns, check out one of these books…