November 2016 - Dayschool with Gill Ferguson - Shibori

Several 'suitably covered' ladies met for the workshop. We had been told to expect a messy time and were not disappointed!
Gill started by showing us a beautifully dyed silk hanging to whet our appetites. She told us that she was primarily a felt maker but also did printmaking, so she worked across different textile techniques.

Then Gill showed us how to set up a dye bath using the ingredients laid out on our information sheets namely: 5 litres of warm water, 60g of washing soda crystals, 10g Hydros and 15g of Indigo VAT  60% grains. She stirred the mixture, covered it with a lid and left it to stand for one  hour.

While we waited Gill showed us some lovely samples of what could be achieved by using the resulting dye. She explained that Shibori was a Japanese term  for dye resist technique of gathering, folding, clamping and tying in different objects before dyeing fabrics

Some samples were  made by sewing running stitches across the material and pulling up tightly(a lovely wood grain effect was produced). This was called ‘Mokume’.

She suggested it was a good idea to plan your design before starting.

She told us about ‘Arashi Shibori’ using a pole to bind material and also ‘Itajime’ using folding and clamping with boards and binding objects into fabric with different sized threads and ropes.

Everyone was raring to go by this time and we all set to work deciding what to tie or sew up. The sewing took so long to do that some people started it then tied up objects and tried out other methods in between preparing the sewing or ‘Mokume’.  

The dye bath was soon full of peculiar looking white bundles, gradually turning green or blue. The green colour became blue after a minute. The pieces had to be left in the dye bath for five minutes maximum and then taken out with tongs and put into a jug (to prevent drips) and rinsed under the tap until the excess dye colour had disappeared.

It was amazing how quickly this happened and soon the window sills and radiators were full of wonderful pieces of indigo coloured patterns of every kind.

We noticed that the dye in the bucket produced a lighter colour as time went on. 
Gill set up two other buckets of mixture during the day and we all continued to dye everything in sight. I even dyed my apple by mistake at lunch time!

At the end of the day there were rows of beautiful pieces on display.  For me the star prizes went to Brenda with her tee shirt and trousers, beautifully dyed in symmetrical patterns and Carole with her lovely folded silk scarf.  We all went home with a great sense of satisfaction.

Thank you Gill.

Meantime in the CLEAN backroom the ladies were hard at work embroidering lovely tablecloths, bags and books, flowers and a beautiful felt pillow.  It is amazing the variety of work carried out in this well behaved room!

The Travelling Books group displayed their books for the last time. Carolynne Parkinson gathered them in for her husband Mark to photograph and produce a DVD of every page (that in itself will be a mammoth task) as a lasting souvenir of each other’s work.
And finally several exhibition pieces were displayed to encourage and remind everyone our exhibition is only a few months away.
Thanks to Irene Pugmire for writing this months blog and Kath Howarth who has helped to set it up.

Ann Reading and Kath Howarth