Furoshiki: one day workshop at NSCCD

On Saturday I held my final creative workshop for the year: Furoshiki. This workshop is incredibly appropriate for this time of year as we created reusable and sustainable gift wrapping using shibori resist techniques, indigo dye and cotton fabric.

In 6 hours we covered a variety of techniques including stitched resist designs, asashi (using a tube to create a pattern) itajime (folded) and tesuji (pleated) shibori. Whilst there was a lot to learn, the output was incredible, with many beautiful fabrics created in the process.

Honeycomb shibori

We marvelled at the magic of the indigo dyeing process, watching it change colour from green, to turquoise, to indigo.

Simple things such as bamboo sticks can create delightful patterns, like the one above. 

We were far too busy trying to squeeze as much in as we possibly could that I totally forgot to take a group photo of our happy creatives. But rest assured we all left tinged with blue and bitten by the indigo bug. ;) 

Shiori Patterns : Itajime

Itajime is the shibori process of folding fabric and then clamping it between boards or sticks. We have been exploring these techniques in my Irresistible Dyeing Class at the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design. We used indigo which is such a magical dye to work with. I love watching the magic as the fabric turns from green to blue as it oxides when it is removed from the indigo dye bath. 

The dyed fabric needs to sit for 24 hours (to allow the indigo to 'set') and hearing the 'oohs and ahhhs' as the fabrics are untied and unfolded when the process is finished is such a delight.  

Below are some of the before and after results.

Creating a resist with C clamps

C Clamp resist pattern

Jam jar top and bamboo sticks resist

Jam jar top and bamboo sticks pattern

wooden block and elastic bands resist

wooden block and elastic bands pattern