WTF is Shibori???

People are always asking me what classes are coming up next at classbunny and I always suggest they look at the website for details because I can't keep dates, times and venues in my head.

But I always oblige by reeling the topics off with ease, 'we've got the Charleston at Mr Falcons, boost your confidence, garden in a cup, photography' and then I get to 'shibori.'

"shibori?

WTF is shibori?'

Well shibori is one of those crafts or rather arts that has been revamped as a contemporary 'must have for fashion and homewares.' It's basically tie dye. But it transcends the crude tie dye we are used to on t-shirts in lurid colours.

In fact it is an ancient Japanese form of resist textile dying. It uses the deep blue, purple shades of indigo. The patterns achieved use pegs, twine, elastic bands, clamps and stitching to fold and shape the cloth to create all kinds of patterns, that will be 'resistant' to the dye once it is dipped. It's unpredictable you never quite know what patterns you have created until you have undone the dark blue, sopping mound of cloth. In fact when you first dip the cloth into the dye, it goes a boring sickly, olive green, and then as the indigo oxidises the blue develops, becoming deeper and deeper. It's all a bit like magic. Anyway that's what shibori is, and here are some pictures of the process.

We have a class coming up on 23 February at the Reg Murphy, bring along an item of clothing to dye or dye a scarf we provide, our fab teacher is Bettina from Dyehaus to show you how.