Dye class: Shibori projects

We've finished the first part of the graduate level dye class i teach, in which we cover the science portion of the subject (different classes of dyes and which fibers they work on, how the processes differ, how to discharge dyes/"color remove," etc.). We're now moving into the section that students usually find more fun, because it covers the application of that knowledge base in the creation of artistically conceived surface design effects. The first project of this section is shibori.

We had a bit of a setback in the form of an ice storm that shut down the university for a day and a half, which put a couple of my students behind on their project, but i do have three images to share of their work. I require them to produce at least two yards of fabric for this project, the logic being that, whenever i am asked to do a shibori effect on fabric by a costume designer, it's in the service of yardage creation--generating pattern on fabric which a draper will then make into a dress or a skirt or a kimono or something.

PRC's costume technician Sam Kate Toney created this snowflakey-looking cotton yardage using a folding and stitching technique and fiber-reactive dye.



First-year grad student Max Hilsabeck produced this organic pattern in three shades of green on four yards of china silk by employing a pole-wrapping (arashi) technique and acid dyes.


Second-year graduate student Katie Keener also used the pole-wrapping technique with acid dyes on the above two yards of china silk, but she accordion-pleated her fabric before wrapping it to achieve this more geometric mirrored pattern.


Here's a view of Sam Kate's yardage spread out on a work table,
for a better perspective on the scale of these pieces.