Shibori 2

Using pre-reduced indigo, thiox, soda ash and water in a 5 gallon bucket can give you endless dyeing joy.  I made the vat outside and it's a good thing because it can get stinky from the thiox and indigo reaction.  It's a living, breathing vat! After first putting the ingredients together, a wonderful bloom develops as the thiox interacts with the indigo.  It looks pretty scary the first time you see it - big bubbly purply burpings!  Using a skimmer (big flat spoon), I removed as much of the bloom as possible and reserved it in another little 1 gallon bucket - this gets returned to the vat at the end of the dyeing session - it has usable indigo in it.

There are several artists who work in shibori and I would love to spend time with them in their studio.  But, I haven't figured out how to clone myself successfully yet, so reading their websites and blogs is a great alternative.  Karren Brito, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, John Marshall are a few artists whose work I admire.

Here are some books in my collection - Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, Mary Kellogg Rice and Jane J. Barton, Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, and the book I found most easy to read and work from - Shibori: Creating Color and Texture On Silk (Crafts Highlights) by Karren K. Brito.

I'm about to play with the smocking machine to scrunch some silk scarves and dip repeatedly in indigo - watch this space for progress.