This weekend, I was supposed to go teach a workshop to a Girls Scouts troop. But they were not able to get enough sign-ups for the workshop to make it work.
After brainstorming for a long time to come up with projects that girls their ages would do and enjoy, I decided to create a fabric stamping workshop for them.
Fabric stamping is really fun and you don’t need any special skills to be able to do it. Moreover, the supplies you need are very simple. So, I knew it was the right project for the girls.
When you’re used to doing something, you’ll be surprised how “involved” it is to teach it. Having learned that lesson, I no longer take teaching something that comes easily to me for granted.
So, to create any of the numerous tutorials that I’ve done in the past, I’ve learned to recreate the process and write the step-by-step instructions as I go about doing the activity.
Fabric Stamping Supplies
Whenever I write it from memory, I often miss a step. Especially those steps that are “so obvious” to me but may not be to someone who’s learning the process for the first time.
For this activity, I employed the help of my daughter who loves crafts and experiments. We spent one fun afternoon, doing fabric stamping on different types of textiles.
I love working with her. She comes up with the coolest ideas and has this knack for connecting seemingly disparate things. And especially since this project was going to be for girls her age, I knew she’d be the perfect partner to work with on the project.
We created some simple and fun designs onto pillow covers. My daughter suggested pillow covers because she said the girls could use them for their sleepovers. (An idea I couldn’t have come up with on my own).
Fabric Stamping Patterns
There was absolutely no pressure to create anything perfect and that always helps in bringing out your creativity. At the end of the day, we’d had so much fun and created custom stuff with our own hands.
Although this project was meant for teenage girls, there are so many applications for fabric stamping in our lives including custom linen and for home decor purposes.
If you’re looking for fresh ideas for creating patterns and designs for your home, with your friends of family or you just want something different to do, get a copy of my FREE ebook Fun with Fabric Stamping.
It will help you create beautiful designs and create items with your own hands that you’ll really love.
To even get even more on fabric stamping, read Ana Joyce’s book on fabric stamping entitled, “Stamp Stencil Paint”
Your Turn
How do you use fabric design techniques in your everyday life?
Warmest Regards,
Gradation Dyeing with Shibori
I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and finally, I got the chance to. I spent an entire day gradation dyeing fabric. I used the Japnese resist dyeing method called Shibori pole-dyeing.
My design principle is: “More values, Less Colors”. So when I dye fabrics, I’ll sometimes dye in gradations so I have different variations of the same color to work with. Usually, I do simple low water immersion gradation dyeing. This has generally worked well. But when I’ve tried gradation dyeing using the shibori pole technique, I’ve not always got the smooth gradation I’ve wanted.
So when I got the chance to dye, this week, I thought I’d go back to gradation dyeing with shibori to figure out the best way to create a smooth gradation.
I think I know what the problem was. I was using different size containers and so I didn’t have the same concentration of dye in the baths. So this time, I’m going to stick to the same size containers for this gradation dyeing. I’ll also measure the same amount of water in each bath.
For how to wrap and scrunch your fabric and add more color options to your dyed shibori fabrics, download the FREE Shibori Tutorial.
Ok. So here goes…
My dye recipe is a version of one I originally learned in an Elizabeth Barton class.
Dye Concentrate Ingredients
- MX Procion Dyes
- Urea
- Water
I like to write formulas. So here’s my formula for the dye concentrate.
Dye Concentrate = 12 oz (375 ml) water + 4 TBS (50 grams) Dye Powder + 3 TBS (40 grams) Urea
This makes about 16 oz of dye concentrate which I save in my dye refrigerator to be used for other dye projects.
How to Mix the Dye Concentrate
- In a 16 oz mason jar put 3TBS of Urea.
- Then add 3 oz very hot water. Stir to dissolve urea.
- Add 2oz cold water to cool down urea solution. (It can’t be used hot)
- Add 4 TBS Dye powder (wear safety mask).
- Screw top of mason jar on and shake carefully until well-mixed
- Add 10oz water (room temperature or cold NOT hot)
- Screw top on and shake until well mixed.
- Pour into your dye bottles. Save excess in a special refrigerator for later use.
I’ve saved dye concentrates in my refrigerator for 2 PLUS years. It’s a convenient way to dye without having to mix each time you want to dye fabrics.
The efficacy of dye concentrates in a refrigerator may decrease over time. But so far, I haven’t noticed any significant decrease in the quality of my refrigerated dyes.
I was low on the two colors I needed for this gradation dyeing – yellow and turquoise. So I mixed fresh batches of them to save for later.
Creating the Dye Baths
Then in the same size bottles (soda bottles with the tops cut off), I poured the same amount of water (16 oz) in each bottle.
I scribbled down some formulas to use to achieve the gradation I was looking for.
My reasoning was if I reduced the amount of each color by a constant amount across the dye baths, I’ll get a smooth value change for this gradation dyeing.
I wanted the color green, so I mixed yellow and turquoise dye concentrates according to my handwritten measurements above. First, I poured the required amounts of yellow dye concentrates into the dye bottles.
Next, I did similarly for the turquoise dye concentrates on getting green colors.
Then, I inserted the pole-wrapped cotton fabrics into the dye baths.
The Results
As you’ll notice, I’m short on the dye baths by a little bit. I knew I could bring the dye bath up to the top somewhat when I added the soda ash solution later. (To find out how to wrap the poles, how much soda ash to add when – download the FREE shibori tutorial below.)
Next time, I’ll increase the dye bath to 18 oz or 20oz and make the dye baths a little more concentrated. That’s the nature of creativity. It’s all about experimentation.
It’s a reminder of why I love creativity. Creativity is all about experimentation. Just when you think you’ve got it, you learn something new.
I’m certainly glad I’m taking value gradation to another level – by using shibori techniques. I thought I got gradation dyeing down in the low water immersion technique.
But here I am learning that I’ve got to do some more testing when it comes to shibori dyeing.
And now here’s a closer look at the details of the shibori patterns on the fabrics I created by gradation dyeing.
So here you have it my creative friend – step-by-step instructions for shibori gradation dyeing.
To get the details on how to wrap the cotton fabric around the pole and other shibori related information, download the free Shibori tutorial. You’ll learn to create this type of shibori fabric as well as multi-colored shibori fabric.
I can’t wait to use my fabrics. So exciting!!!
Chat soon.
Warmest Regards,
This past weekI’ve been trying out a different method of using acrylic paints on fabrics. I’m excited to share it with you today. This method has got different names but I like the name “Acrylic Pouring”
First, the ingredients I used to experiment are:
Supply List for Acrylic Pouring
- Golden Fluid Acrylics
- Floetrol (affiliate link)
- Drip Silicone (affiliate link)
- Distilled Water
- Canvas
Maybe because I learned to cook without recipes, I tend to wing things which require recipes a lot. Well, till I mess up. Then when I realize I need to be more specific in order to get good results, I start to pay better attention. What can I say? Some things are “wingable”, others are just not.
At this point in my experimentation, I’m still winging it. So I don’t have specific recipes for you. However, all the ingredients you’ll need to experiment with are in the supply list above. Although I didn’t use all of them at once. I experimented.
Acrylic pouring is fun and in some ways similar to marbling with acrylics. If you haven’t already, check out that tutorial. It’s the kind of detailed tutorial you get when you measure everything. 🙂 Now back to acrylic pouring. The outcome can never be fully pre-determined. You’re always in anticipation to see what the results are….. so much fun.
The Process of Acrylic Pouring
If you want big cells or shapes to show up in your piece, don’t stir. If you must, only do a minimal stir or swirl.
From a height, pour a small amount of paint from each of the cups into one main paint cup. Alternate this process between all the colors of paint you’re working with.
Here’s what it looked like inside the main cup
Above is a 12 x 12 wooden frame onto which I stapled a piece of canvas. This served as a support so that I could pour the acrylics onto the canvas. You wouldn’t need to do this step if you’re going to use a store-bought canvas.
Next, I tip the main cup onto the canvas.
Then slowly begin to lift it up….
The amount of paint mixture I ended up pouring into my main paint cup was too small. As you can see from the picture above, I didn’t have enough paint to cover the canvas.
By the time I’d shifted the paints around to cover the entire surface of the canvas, I’d lost some of the beautiful cell-like shapes that had started to form.
Results of Acrylic Pouring Experiment
Here are the results of two acrylic pouring I did.
and——-
I’ve got more experiments to do to figure out how much paint I need to make for a 12 x 12 piece of fabric. This is one of those instances where “winging” it does not cut it. I didn’t have enough paint to cover the edges of the frame.
That’s it on acrylic pouring for now. I’ll be reporting back on my next experiment soon. So stay tuned.
Your Turn
Have you tried acrylic pouring? What do you like about it and what don’t you like? If you haven’t and you love the process of experimentation, I’m positive you’ll love this. I look forward to chatting with you in the comments section.
Warmest Regards,
This post contains affiliate links. I receive a small percentage of sales made using affiliate links. Thanks so much!
I’m excited to show you an awesome surface design technique I created with acrylic paints. I’m calling it “Penny-Tucked Fabric Design”. Surface design is a fun way to create a new fabric design. I enjoy creating surface designs because they give me the opportunity to play.
And guess what? Playing is an important component of creativity. Bet you didn’t know that, huh? So whenever I get the chance to create a new fabric design by playing with dyes and paints, I’m all for it.
Let’s admit it, not every part of the creative process is fun all the time. However, fabric design with paints allows you to enjoy the creative process in ways that you can’t do with other aspects of your creative practice.
If you aren’t into fabric designing, man, you should try it. You don’t need to set up a full-scale dyeing studio. You can start small with paintsticks and fabric markers.
I think you’re going to like this fabric design I created. If you’re ready, let’s get right to it.
Supplies Needed for Penny-Tucked Fabric Design
- White Fabric
- Acrylic Paints
- Rubber Bands
- Spray Bottles
- Several Pennies
To start, I randomly tucked each penny under my cloth and tied it with a rubber band. You want to make your tie or knot tight so that paint will not seep through it. For this, you want to use the very small rubber bands. If your rubber bands are too big you’ll need to wind them around the pennies several times before you’ll get a tight tie.
For this, you want to use the very small rubber bands, not the big ones. If your rubber bands are too big you’ll need to wind them around the pennies several times before you’ll get a tight tie.
To create an organic pattern tie several pennies in a random fashion all over your cloth. If you’re interested in creating a specific pattern, say a grid or some other geometric pattern, then mark the places you’d like your penny shapes to be.
Applying Paint to the Penny-Tucked Fabric Design
Next, dilute your acrylic paints with water to get a runny mixture. Fluid acrylics will work well for this. Then dip a wide brush into your paint and apply it to the surface of your cloth.
You’ll be painting on the side of the cloth shown in the photo below, not the other side.
Although I imagine painting on the other side will also yield an interesting fabric design as well.
Next, you want to fill a spray bottle with a different color of your diluted acrylic paints and spray it over your painted cloth.
Here’s how the cloth turned put after I’d overpainted it with the gray paint.
Here’s a look at it nicely folded up.
As you can see in the above close-up photo it has a lot of textures and different values which make it really rich. But it didn’t remain all nicely folded up for long.
I was having so much fun, I decided to experiment a little more. While one part was saying, “be done already”, the other part was saying, “more, more…” So I went for it.
Using the same blue color in a different value (much lighter than I’d used previously), I went on another painting spree.
This time, I used a small paint brush to fill in the little white “holes” left behind by the pennies.
Here’s the fabric with the white holes painted blue.
Here it is all nicely folded up.
The final design was really rich. It had three-dimensional like shapes on the surface of the fabric.
Ideas for Creating Variations of this Design
- Use a different color palette
- Use variations in value of the same color
- Arrange pennies in a geometric pattern
- Paint on the other side of the fabric
- Use a colored fabric to start, not a white fabric
So now, there you have it. A beautiful fabric design created from a play date with acrylic paints.
Your Turn
Do you like this idea? Are you going to try it out? What variations would you try? Let me know in the comments. Chat soon.
Warmest regards,
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It’s said that making connections is the basic definition of creativity. Even our brains are wired to function properly by making connections with different regions in the brain. So what does it really mean to be “making connections”? Let’s analyze that for a moment! Shall we?
For starters, that phrase implies when you’re making connections, then the items or things you’re connecting are seemingly unrelated. Right?
Secondly, it means that you’re creating new ideas from things that already exist. This, I think is fun stuff. Because you don’t ever have to be short of inspiration to create.
Simply by making connections between things you already know, you can create something new. There’s no need to pull stuff from thin air.
That’s exactly what happened to me in my studio practice this week. I didn’t set out to go making connections between anything. But as I worked, I kept noticing that I was drawing from other areas of my life experiences to create.
Making Connections Between Fabric Dyeing & Painting Walls
It brought to mind a famous quote, Steve Jobs had said in an interview several years ago.
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.
When I was pregnant with my oldest son, I was so excited about the prospect of having a new baby that I went to great lengths to prepare for him. One of the things I did was to paint his nursery. In the process, I learned to use painter’s tape to create lines and patterns when painting.
So when I was looking for something interesting to do with fabric, I remembered that experience. Therefore, I started making the connections between how I executed that job and how it could be done on fabric
Making Connections Real – The Process
I first created a wrinkled paper effect by soaking a piece of fabric in soda ash solution for about 10 minutes. Then I poured some gray dye solution onto it. Squeezing, and scrunching the fabric to increase the wrinkles, I left it to batch.
Now, I needed to come up with a pattern to use. Borrowing from one of my favorite traditional (or maybe not so traditional) quilt patterns is the crazy quilt pattern. So I chose that.
Now that I was done making the connections between a quilt pattern and my background fabric, I needed to figure out the painting technique. I had in mind a dry brush effect, where the bristles of the paintbrush will create a scratching effect on my fabric.
To get the dry-brush effect where you have parallel lines with spaces in between, I brushed small amounts of the dye concentrate onto my fabric. This way, I didn’t have dye soaking through the fabric.
Making Connections Real – The Results
Here’s the fabric after painting.
I had to wash the fabric to get rid of the excess dyes. At this point, I missed using acrylic paints. Because if I’d used acrylics, wouldn’t have needed to wash them out.
Moving further along the lines of making connections between things in my experience. I knew that in fabric dyeing you need to have the dyed fabric be moist as it batches so the dyes can fix. In painting, that’s not necessary. The acrylics can dry as soon as possible without any problems.
Since I wasn’t soaking my fabric with paint, it dried as I went along painting. So I worried that I’ll lose all color after washing in mild detergent.
Here’s how it looks after coming out of the wash:
It lost some color but it wasn’t terrible. It actually turned out great. I was originally worried that it’d come out too saturated. Then I’ll have difficulties defining foregrounds and background. I also like the shibori dye look.
Next week, I’ll show you what I created wth this adventure of making connections.
Your Turn
How about making connections of your own today? What can you create out of some old ideas? Do share in the comments below.
Warmest Regards,
I’ve always loved surface design and being able to revisit it again is really fun. This time it seems to be more focused on painting, not hand dyeing or some of the other techniques I’ve done in the past.
Winter has a way of either getting you down in the down doldrums with cabin fever or frantically searching for an outlet. So I’m glad that painting has become that outlet for me.
Like I did last week, I painted my background fabric with diluted acrylic paints. This time I used a white cotton fabric instead of a canvas. The effect was pretty much the same except for in weight. The painted canvas was of course, heavier than the painted cotton solids. And the painted cotton solids heavier than their unpainted friends.
Printing Geometric Shapes
However, to add a little more interest to my background, I went a little further and printed some shapes onto my background fabric. Dipping the lids of circular bowls and jars into paint, I printed the circular shapes onto the fabric.
Well, just as with any creative process, things don’t always follow a defined path and they sure didn’t this time. My printed circles were too perfectly round, which isn’t the look I was going for.
Yes, I knew the look I was going for but I didn’t quite get there. So, in came another coat of diluted acrylics. A couple of light brushstrokes over the background fabric and suddenly, the printed circles were not so perfect anymore.
Adding a Layer of Texture to Background Fabric
Moving along, it was now time to add another layer of interest – texture. Using the printed circles as templates, I stitched quilting designs that fit right into the circles.
This did not only create texture but also added to the unity of the design. My printed circles and designs were both the same geometric shapes.
Drawing with Fabric Collages
And now to the foreground, I cut out hand dyed fabrics in curvy shapes to create the design I had in mind. I was going for a cropped version of another design I’d previously created here. I didn’t want to draw all the curvy shapes with fabric collages. So I marked some of the curves to draw with thread sketching later.
Design Challenges
Well again, I hit a snag. At this point, the design wasn’t quite coming together as I’d hoped. There was too much negative space in the upper right-hand corner and it just wasn’t looking balanced. I tried to arrange the elements on the foreground as best as I could but it just wasn’t coming together. Hmm, what do I do?
Then. I remembered one of my old design tricks – the upside-down design technique. So I rotated my work and started arranging the elements in that orientation. And what do I know, it worked!
So the lesson here: The process of creating doesn’t always go smoothly. And of course, there’s no guarantee that the failures along the way will lead to success. But if you give up, you’ll never know what you may have created.
Your Turn
What lessons are you learning in your studio practice this week?
Warmest Regards,
This has been a fun week working with an acrylic painted fabric. For a while now, I haven’t been satisfied with the backgrounds of my work. I felt they were just plain boring. So, I’ve been thinking of ways to kick it up a notch.
I got my opportunity this week when I decided to paint some fabrics to use as my background instead of the solid black background fabric I’ve been using recently. Although I’ve painted fabrics before, this time I wanted to try an acrylic painted fabric, not a dye painted fabric.
Unprimed Canvas
I started off with a piece of unprimed canvas that I purchased by the yard from a fabric store. I knew going in that using an unprimed canvas will mean, the canvas will absorb more of the paint. But that’s the look I was going for. Not the look where the paint adheres to the top surface of the acrylic painted fabric.
So I chose the unprimed canvas for this effect. Secondly, I chose it so I’ll have an easy time sewing through my acrylic painted fabric. I knew that if I had the paints sitting on top of a primed canvas, it’ll be difficult to stitch through.
Diluted Acrylic Paints
Furthermore, I aggressively diluted my paint with water to about 50% water and 50% acrylic paint. It created a form of an acrylic wash. This also helped to reduce the “plastic-y” feel of the paint. Thus making it easier for me to stitch through later.
Drying the Acrylic Painted Fabric Between Washes
I used the acrylic wash to paint over the canvas several times. I used different values of blue and gray paint. My final acrylic painted fabric must have been painted at least 10 times. Each time, I let it dry before applying another wash. I used a hair dryer to hasten things along. Letting it dry first before applying another wash ensures that the previous colors get the chance to set.
Then I drew two curves in blue and orange on top of the background. The design I was going for is the cropped version of this design that I created a few weeks ago. Drawing on the painted canvas was very challenging for me. Because I drew shapes freehand on the acrylic painted fabric, I was working so hard to get them perfectly placed.
As much as I try to avoid perfectionism because I know it’s bad for creativity, sometimes I just find myself tangled up in it. When that happens, I have to talk myself out of it to keep moving. Although I managed to make myself move along, I won’t lie to you. I went back a couple of times to try and perfect those two curves. (You’d notice in the video below that I went at it again with thread sketching.)
After I was satisfied with the colors and somewhat satisfied with the curves, I hang my acrylic painted fabric to dry for 48 hours. I don’t think I needed to wait that long. But I wasn’t quite ready to go back to working on it any sooner. So it all worked out great. The paints got a chance to set and I got a chance to work on other things.
Quilting The Acrylic Painted Fabric
Ultimately, I knew, I wanted to add thread sketching to this piece to add texture and to increase its interest. I planned to use thread to draw a few more shapes but I knew I’d have lots of negative spaces on my acrylic painted fabric. Since I wanted to prevent that from causing puckering issues, I decided to first quilt the entire background before thread sketching.
Fabric Collages Fused to Acrylic Painted Fabric
Now to add more elements to this mixed media project, I cut out some curves from fabric and fused it to my now quilted, acrylic painted fabric.
Thread Sketching
Watch the video to see me adding thread elements to this complex piece.
The Big Reveal
And now, here you have it, drum roll, please…….. “Infinity” – Hand-dyed, acrylic painted fabric, thread sketched and free motion stitched.
Overall Front View
Close Up View of the Front
Overall – Rear View
Close-Up Back View
Perfectionism tried to stop me but I wouldn’t let it.
Your Turn
What do you think about stretching your creativity and trying something new like I did this week? Have you used an acrylic painted fabric in your work before? What challenges did you face? Can’t wait to hear from you.
Warmest Regards,
I’m glad to finally resume work on Stitch the Sketch. My sewing machine is in good shape now. In this latest episode, I created a piece of abstract art out of marbled fabric. Marbling is a cool surface design technique for creating beautiful fabrics. I learned this technique in a workshop and I’ve shown you how to create your own marbled fabric in this blog post. Some of the fabric from that workshop is what I’m using in this piece.
So, here is the piece of marbled fabric I started out with. I’m sure you’ll recognize this as one from the photos from the workshop.
I cut up my marbled fabric and added a few design elements using suitable hand dyed fabrics. I then fused them all together.
Since the marbled fabric already looks beautiful, I decided, it was important to make my stitches work with the marks that already existed in the fabric rather than compete with them.
It’s easy to employ stitch just because … But the main premise of this challenge has always been to employ stitch in creative ways – as a design element rather than a decorative element in fabric art. So following that thought process, I allowed my stitches to take their cues from the paint marks that already existed in the marbled fabricI I was using. The result is a very organic, abstract stitched drawing that I couldn’t have planned ahead.
Closeup View of Stitched Marbled Fabric
Below is a detailed view of the stitches on the back of “Circular Blocks #4”. In this piece, I was going for organic circles rather than refined geometric circles and the marbled fabric helped me achieve that.
Following is a look at the entire reverse side of “Circular Blocks #4”
Here is a detailed look at the front view
And here is a look at the entire front view of “Circular Blocks #4”
Finally, here’s the video of how I stitched this drawing.
Thoughts on Working in A Series
In conclusion, I’ll say that I’ve been able to explore organic circles in this piece mainly because I’m working in a series. The idea occurred to me when I created “Circular Blocks #3”. If I’d not been working in a series I might have abandoned that thought. But working in a series has given me the chance to explore it here in this marbled fabric piece.
Question: What have you also been up to? What are you working on?
Warmest Regards,
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I love hand dyeing fabrics and shibori dyeing is one of my favorites. As I watch the season changing, I realize that I haven’t taken advantage of the nice summer weather and very soon I may not be able to dye outdoors this year. And also my interview with Surface Design Artist, Carol Eaton, last week was so inspiring that I wanted to go dye. So this week, I made time to play with dye. Well knowing how much I love to share with you, you shouldn’t be surprised I decided to write this shibori dyeing tutorial for you. It’s basically a visual guide to arashi shibori. I hope you’ll have as much fun shibori dyeing as I do. So here goes.
What is Shibori?
Shibori is a Japanese style method of hand dyeing that is based on using resistance to prevent the dye from going to specific areas of the fabric. This results in cool patterns. Arashi Shibori is done by using poles to resist the dye. For this reason, arashi shibori is also called pole-dyeing. In this shibori dyeing tutorial, I’m going to do arashi shibori. So let’s get started.
Supplies Used in This Shibori Dyeing Tutorial
- Cotton fabrics, (PFD or scoured with mild detergent)
- Procion MX Reactive Dyes
- Synthrapol (I substitute with DAWN dishwashing detergent)
- Measuring spoons, cups
- PVC pipes (2″ wide and 12″ to 16″ long)
- Tall containers for holding PVC pipes (plastic soda bottles with tops cut off)
- Rubber bands
- Protective Gloves
- Dust mask
- Paint brushes, sponges (optional)
Step 1: Cut and Wrap Fabric Around Pole
Cut your cotton fabric. I usually use 1/2 a yard or 1/4 yard pieces. Larger than that and it will be difficult to wrap around this size pole. (You’ll need a wider diameter pole for larger fabric pieces). I start by laying the pole at a diagonal on one end of my fabric.
Then roll the fabric around the pole. Keep it taut but not too tight. You want to be able to slide the fabric later.
Keep rolling the fabric around the pole (keeping it taut) until it’s all completely rolled. Notice the fabric extends beyond the pole. That’s o.k.
Step 2: Scrunch and Secure Fabric
I firmly place one hand at each end of the pole. Then starting from the bottom end to the other, (I start with my left hand), I twist the fabric in one direction, scrunching it up the pole towards my right hand. Remember that to start with, the fabric extends beyond the pole. Hold onto the end of the pole to twist the fabric, not the end of the fabric.
Twist and slide the fabric up the pole till you clear the bottom of the pole
After you have cleared the bottom of the pole, secure with rubber bands. You don’t want your fabric sliding off the pole.
Repeat the same scrunching process. This time start from the top towards the bottom (or from you right hand towards your left hand).
Again, secure the top part of your scrunched up fabric with rubber bands
Phew!!! all done with scrunching and securing. Repeat for the rest of your fabric pieces.
You may want to do this part the night before, in preparation for dyeing the next day.
Step 3: Insert Wrapped Poles Into Dye Bath
Now onto the wet part of the shibori dyeing tutorial. Remember to follow good safety guidelines. Wearing protective gear (dust mask, gloves), mix your dye solution according to the manufacturer’s instructions. I like to mix different dye concentrates and save them in my dye refrigerator for later use. This way I don’t have to handle dye powder each time I want to dye fabrics.
Now pour your dye solution into your tall containers (I use soda bottles, yogurt tubs, club-size snack containers … just start looking out for tall containers). Then insert your pole-wrapped fabric into your dye baths.
Some folks will add soda ash at this point. I wait an hour or so before adding soda ash. Then I let the fabric sit in the dye bath for about 4 hours. After that, you rinse the dye out, wash with synthrapol or a substitute, and then rinse again. Dry and iron the luscious fabric you’ve just created and get ready to design with it.
An optional step follows from here. You only need to continue if you want to try multicolored shibori fabrics.
Shibori Dyeing Tutorial for Creating Multicolored Fabrics
Now, since I wanted to play some more and create multicolored dyed fabrics, I took this route. In Step 3, soon after I’d added soda ash, I pulled out some of the poles and hand-painted with different dye concentrates.
I then wrapped the pole in plastic to keep it moist and warm.
Now set aside to let the dye fix for a couple of hours (about 4 hours)
Here are some of the fabrics I got.
So here you have it, a photo-guided shibori dyeing tutorial. If you already hand dye but haven’t tried shibori, you should check it out. If you’ve never tried hand-dyeing, I made this tutorial very simple just for you. Yuu can download a free PDF copy too. Let me know how you make out when you try it.
Questions: Do you hand dye your fabrics? Why or why not? Can’t wait to join you in the conversation below.
Warmest Regards,
More Reading on Shibori Dyeing
Lots of Shibori Based Projects
Coming up with color scheme ideas is one of the things that artists are very often preoccupied with.
It’s not surprising that this is the case, because usually when you see a great piece of artwork, what do you notice? Color!! Although a lot goes into making art, the color almost always seems to take the credit for a great design.
Just like any other artist, I’m always trying to come up with color scheme ideas for my work. This week, I came up with new color scheme ideas that I’m excited about. This happened as I worked through a variation of episode 31. My new approach to coming up with different color scheme ideas takes advantage of two things I love – surface design and stitch.
Color Scheme Ideas Reveal
Ok, so here’s the big reveal. First of all, I throw a few colors of procion dyes on cotton fabric. Then I watch and see how the colors mix and what new colors they create. At the end of the day, whether I use immersion dyeing or dye painting, I know I’ll get some gorgeous fabrics . This “naturally” occurring color scheme is going to be what I base my new color scheme ideas on.
If you’re into surface design, this is right up your alley. You should try creating a color scheme you love with dyed fabric. Then select the portions of the dyed fabric you like, and use those portions to come up with new color scheme ideas for your other work. If you’re not into dyeing or painting your own fabric, don’t be dismayed. You can still do this. Buy already hand-dyed fabric to use this way.
A Set of Rich Colors and Tones to Work With
Starting with dyed fabric gives you a set of rich colors and tones to work with in your new color scheme ideas for two reasons. One, there’s a gentle transition from one color to the other that’s found in hand dyed fabrics. Two, color mixing occurs naturally, creating new colors that you didn’t start with. The variations in value and the creation of tertiary colors in the hand dyed fabrics is what you’re after. This is what’s going to form the basis of your new color scheme.
I’m very excited about this way of coming up with color scheme ideas. We all have fabrics that we love. So this is really easy. All you have to do when struggling to decide what colors you want to use in a project, just choose one of your fabrics. Then distil the colors in that fabric down to a couple of colors and values you can use in your project. Try it out. I’m sure you’ll not be disappointed.
How have you come up with color scheme ideas in the past? What do you think of this approach to new color schemes? Do share below.
Warmest Regards,
Watch and read about the entire Stitch The Sketch series.