Good Things for Itajime Shibori
Did my post last week get you thinking about trying Indigo Shibori Dyeing? We'll explore Itajime Shibori more in depth in a future post but, this week, I'll let you in on one of the secrets to dyeing success. It's all in the supplies!
Itajime is one of my favorite Shibori techniques! It involves the folding of fabric and clamping with shapes to form a resist for the dye. The geometric possibilities are infinite and it’s always exciting to unclamp and see what you’ve created. But, its not at all exciting when the shapes you’ve used break in the clamping. So, rather than be frustrated, I found my own source for shapes!
The word Itajime means "board-clamping" in Japanese, but boards are heavy and not easy to reuse or clean. I love my clear acrylic shapes for Itajime….they are 1/4” thick so harder to break when clamping than the 1/8” thick shapes usually sold. They’re economical in price and can be washed and used over and over.
The delight on my student’s face is wonderful! She used the Itajime method with circular shapes. They start at just $1.00 a pair for the 1” diameter circles and they’re available in six different sizes.
The square and hexagon shapes are also very popular and easy to use. They come in pairs in different sizes.
Can you tell which shape was used for this beautiful student-made scarf?
I offer lots of different shapes for you to use - all sold in pairs! Again made by a student, this mandala is spectacular and uses several of the acrylic shapes plus stitching. Experimenting is a magical way to create! Click here to see all of my acrylic shapes.
Are you ready to try Itajime? Silk scarves are a great way to start and, since the holiday making season is upon us, they make wonderful gifts. Click here to see the blank scarves I offer.
I also offer my favorite PFD (Prepared for Dyeing) fabrics on my web site. They're not always the easiest to find at your local stores, so I wanted to make them very accessible for you! To learn more about Prepared for Dyeing fabrics, click here to read my blog post on PFD fabrics. Then click here to browse and choose the ones you need.
And, one last picture for inspiration! Folded fabric and clamped triangles and hexagons resulted in this gorgeous fabric for one of my students. Are you ready to try Itajime now? I hope so!
DEBBIE
Use the links below to follow me every day!
Leave a comment