shibori with a story behind.

This sample from my collection comes with a story.i will refrain from qualifying it and leave that up to you.
When i was in Japan in 1994 i visited Sensei and she invited me to stay overnight as she lives in Hachioji. The town although it is 40 kms from Shinjuku station in Tokyo, is still considered Tokyo!

She lives in a traditional Japanese house behind her brother's modern occidental house and surrounded by a bamboo forest and of course some momijis.
There are two rooms in the house, one that serves as general purpose living space and studio, with her loom and her bedroom. A tiny kitchen and even tinier bathroom complete the house.
When she wants to cook for real, or soak in the o furo she goes to her brother's and uses his facilities.

That night she she treated us to a delicious yosenabe and she even took the trouble to go to Kinokuniya and get wine for me.
We laughed and talked and had a small show and tell . She was going to have her yearly woven kimono exhibit some weeks after and i promised not to miss it by any means. At that time my Japanese was pretty pedestrian, barely survival, so my friend Atsuko was working overtime translating for me whenever Sensei switched to Japanese to fully explain something.

At some point she pulled out a silk kimono covered with kanoko shibori and dyed with akane . i sat on the tatami in awe examining it. Yards and yards of hand bound kanoko patterning the surface with flowers, fowing streams and leaves and creating that wonderful puckered surface.i just couldn't take my eyes from it. After a while she carefully folded it between tissue papers and and put it away.
Two bottles of wine later we decided to call it a night and started clearing the space to extend the futons.

Next morning when i woke up and opened my eyes the first thing i saw was the kimono hanging on the window in front of my futon.
Sensei then told me that as i had liked it so much she wanted it to be the first thing that i saw next morning.

And as i was leaving she slipped a wrapped packet in my hand
which later i found out it contained a sample of the fabric.

Atsuko, watashi wa and Sensei at the exhibit, one of her woven kimonos behind us.
God how young i was!

neki desu


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kanoko shibori -untie magic

If you've had thoughts of how horrid it would be to untie all those small tied dots the promised tutorial is here. The system works like a charm.

• hold the fabric with both hands
• put your index finger under a tied bundle give it an upward push
• tug the fabric with both hands and the tie will pop undone. Voila!
• move to the next tie keeping hold of the fabric and repeat the operation
  

It really pays off to do the tying with a continuous thread.
BTW the fabric was dyed with my one and only successful indigo vat.
It isn't dark dark blue, but it's a pretty good blue. Getting there!


neki desu

fawn spots-kanoko shibori

Here's a short basic tutorial on how to work kanoko shibori.

• Make a dot network template in a half drop, square or any other sequence. This will help in creating the overall pattern. Mark it on the cloth with a fugitive ink pen.
• Fasten the needle to the stand.
• Pick a small bunch of fabric with the tip of the needle (the fabric will stay on the needle by gravity) and without letting it go from the needle hold the cloth between your thumb and index finger.
• Take the bobbin on your right hand and wrap the thread around the fabric and holding the thread with your left heart finger pass the bobbin through the loop and pull the thread taut . Get your finger out of the way. Pull tightly.
• Move on to the next dot and repeat the operation. This will make continuous bound dots which will be easy to untie later on.
• Once the cloth is all tied dye and dry it.
• Untie
• Fabric can be pressed flat or left with the texture created by the binds.

This is the kind of work that is easier to do than to explain. It is also one of those activities in which practice makes perfect or at least makes such activity effortless.
The regimental needle attachment makes work extremely easy.
This is the kanoko shibori needle. Some people use it pointing down i find i can work better if it is pointing up.

Next week i will blog another tutorial on how to untie kanoko shibori.
If you find these tutorials useful please link back.


neki desu