Experiments

I have been working some more with natural dyes and shibori, trying out some more techniques.

Natural dye: nature printing

I had a very brief interlude into the art of nature printing or ‘bundle dying’ only making one sample. I used the skin and some thin slices from an onion, folded in silk and bound around a tin with parcel string. The result was quite subtle but I definitely want to try some more!

Shibori with natural dyes – a continuation of my summer project

 

With the Shibori dyeing I started out with pretty much no idea what I was doing. The only previous knowledge I had was a brief description with some examples that was given in a lecture during my second year. With this vague concept of what to do I began experimenting with different ways of binding and folding to see what effects were achievable. I stuck with the same few colours, which I knew overdyed well so as not to waste any time or fabric. The images below are of fabric dyed with grape juice, turmeric and brown and red onion skins.

Natural dyes

I went to visit to a lady who used to be my neighbour not long ago, so she could show me the fabrics she had been dying. Her experiments had been with shibori and natural dyes and the results were gorgeous. I decided that I would also experiment with natural dyes.

I didn’t really have a clue where to begin, with only a list of plants which were known to lend their colours to cloth, which I had found on the internet. I tried boiling the plant matter in water with a variety of fabric swatches. For some of the plants I tried this method was a success, but for most, the fabric remained colourless. Here are my results so far: