Carol R. Eaton Designs

Carol R. Eaton Designs

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Fabric Dyeing On Sticks!

I saw a photo of some fabric wrapped around sticks all ready to be dropped into a dye bath. The photo was of a community in Africa who had some excellent Shibori dye masters. I just smiled at the idea of using the resources on hand (sticks) to create such beautiful fiber works. I thought I'd give it a try... I picked up some sticks, gathered some twine and was good to go.

I didn't do any research on techniques which is quite apparent when you look at my results. I had fun and learned a lot about the tightness of the twine and the amount of dye needed. I'm defiantly trying it again but next time I'll put more thought into the end result!


I wonder what will happen near those knots in the stick?

I tired to tie the twine as tightly as possible

All tied up and ready for their bath!

They really soaked up a lot of dye but laying flat didn't allow the dye 
to go through all the fabric layers


Way too much white! I think I need a different deeper vessel for the dye bath.
Does anyone have some tips for me?!

9 comments:

  1. A deeper bath is not necessarily the solution. It is difficult for the dye to penetrate many layers of fabric just like with regular shibori. Shorter fabric will help because that involves less layers. Tying it looser will also help with the penetration but might lead to less result. And of course if you start with wet fabric you will have mre white.

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  2. Great comments! I started with wet fabric and will definatly use dry in the next go around! Do you have some examples of your work posted so I could take a peek?

    Cheers!

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    1. Here are some pictures:
      http://wilopiooguta.blogspot.nl/2008/07/shibori.html

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    2. I love your blog! Thanks for sharing - your work is wonderful and I can see we spend equal time playing with dyes and experimenting! I've started to follow your blog so I can cyber-play along with you :)

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    3. I love your blog - thanks for sharing! I can see we spend equal time experimenting and playing with dyes! I've started to follow your blog so I can cyber-play along side you :)

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  3. I have always had similar results with my shibori experiments, even when I wrapped shirts around large buckets and tied with sinew. Sometimes I re-wrap for a second dye bath starting my wrap with the darker end, and leaving the lighter end more exposed, then I use another color... that gives interesting results. I like what you did, and it's very intriguing to think of using branches to wrap around instead of pipe.

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    1. Judy - you always have such great insight! Thanks for the suggestions!

      For those who are not farmilar Judy and friends will be hosting online workshops at http://www.fibermixedmedia.com. You must check it out!

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  4. why don't you just add more water to your dyestock? it's all about the amount of dye powder you added and not the amount of water. I love your results.

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    1. Great suggestion! When I get back to my sticks I'll have some new tricks to try!

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