Monday, August 1, 2011

Indigo Dye Day and Shibori Weaving

warping the loomssome would rather knit!shibori weaving on the loomweaving and munchingwhite on whitethe elegant scientist weighing up the chemicals the mad scientist prepares the indigo concentratesee the lovely clear yellow green dyebath with beautiful scummy "flowers" floating on top?ready to go - dyepot and drip panShibori weaving heading for the potgoing . . .gone! here it comes (after a minute in the dyebath)almost outopening the folds to check the dyeIt's starting to make the magicinto the drip pan to let the indigo oxidizeItajime in the clamp Itajime comes out of the pot all green and niceafter oxidizing for a while, the excess dye is squeezed out.shibori weaving on the drying rackthe woven shibori pattern is revealedthere's that amazing browninto the dye pot it goes

The Vashon Spinners Rock and the Vashon Rigid Heddle Weavers have an indigo dye day - handspun yarns, carded fibers, silk scarves, and Shibori woven scarves all go in the pot and turn blue!

OK, the pictures are really small here, but if you click on the link to the flickr set, the pictures are bigger and if you look at each one individually, it has a caption - and there are a lot more pictures! (This "share this on blog" business is a little limited, it seems to me)