Monday 12 November 2012

College update

Those of you who read my ramblings here on a regular basis will know that I am in the middle of a City & Guilds course in Creative Textiles. You will also know that I have been raving about it ever since I started it so at the risk of boring you even further, I'd like to share a few pictures of one of the recent tasks....Shibori. A few people left comments asking what Shibori is. Basically it is a Japanese term for dying cloth.....to my mind, it's very posh tie dye!!!

To begin with, I sketched my design in pencil on my fabric (in this case it's calico) and then you start stitching running stitches which can be gathered up to create the tie die effect.

Gathering the stitches can be really quite tricky as can figuring out which direction to stittch because the direction of the gathers can be quite crucial to the overall design.

Once dyed, you then have the joy of removing the stitching which in reality is even trickier than the brain teasing of planning the whole thing, as not only has the fabric been dyed, but of course the thread has also been dyed and you can no longer see them!!!!

The results were so worth all the hard work though!!


 Basic sketch....
 Stitching.....


Gathering.....





Dyed piece.....



So if you have ever thought that you might like to dip your toe in the waters of the world of creative textiles, I can highly recommend this course. Oh and having a good tutor helps too, Jane is brilliant, very patient, knowledgeable and fun.

9 comments:

Kathyk said...

Cool technique but pretty labour intensive - love the effect though.

Enjoy the rest of your course

Kathyk

PetraB said...

The result of the technique is amazing ... and surprising. Love the result.

Diane Kelsey said...

Wow such amazing work, it all seems so complex. Are you studying at a college or by Distant learning?

Lin said...

wow wow wow you clever girl!!!

finnella03 said...

They look beautiful Lin. Is there no limit to your talents.

Helen said...

This looks amazing, I love your patterns. What a great time you are having on this course!

Inkypinkycraft said...

Love the pieces...looks like you are having fun and learning too! Trace x

Gabrielle said...

Oh my! These look INCREDIBLE! I was so impressed when you let me have a sneaky peek at the threading stage but now... wow! Now where's my babysitter? I need evening courses!

Ryn Tanaka said...

Oh WOW! Gorgeous effect! Reminds me of a hand made bedding store that I passed by in Vancouver yesterday. All the duvet covers were batik. Imagine a duvet cover done like your project! A lot of work I'd imagine... But it would be stunning!