Terrible excitement

Now I have my work cut out for me - as I have a bank of Nudibranchs and sea creatures that I have done the samples for and only need to scale them up up up and stitch.

This samples goes with another sample to create anemones... and I can't wait to add the batik tips and create long lengths of Nudibranchs in fizzy/exciting colours (reach for the NASA launch-pad glasses)!  I wouldn't hold your breath though, I am off to Jasper and the Canadian Rockies for the Easter weekend.

Kikaigumo Shibori

Here is the sculptural form of Kikaigumo Shibori created on a synthetic fabric of unknown fibre content, I thought initially that it was 'nylon' so first it was dyed in Acid dye with little pick up and later with disperse dye which was fine.

The flat-ironed fabric's pattern is typical tie die, except that the spiders' webs are tiny and I feel these are more typical of shibori.

As I am using such a mixture of fabrics that, today, I found myself working with acid, disperse and fibre reactive dyes.... wow I had better not do this when I am tired.

Trial by cocktail stick

I had been thinking about how to make  Kikaigumo (tool-aided spiderweb) Shibori work in a less antagonistic way...... by which I mean that I want to stop fighting the natural tendencies of the slippery fabrics so that they simply want to stay in place instead of wanting to unravel.  I had come up with a solution and was trying it today when I thought...what I could do is wrap around a last that will stay in... I began working with cocktail sticks.  What wonderful representation of protuberances these will make.

I love the way the meditative actions involved in Shibori allow one to develop ones design or process.

Potential

This turned out to be silk organza not nylon...
And I use the word potential because I am the master of understatement.

During my City and Guilds in England I was presented with a beautifully turned shibori tool, seen here with some pieces of wrapped fabrics.  The one on the left didn't take the acid dye - perhaps it is viscose. The piece on the right is a nylon that took the colour beautifully and I can't wait to see it unwrapped.

Pink Lady - skin (not so) tight

I don't know why this particular fabric isn't photogenic, perhaps the silk is too shiny.  I have tried it in daylight, floodlit and in shadow...  But always the highlights come through on the image over-exposed... is this what happens when you lend your camera out and someone changes settings.... anyway here is Pink Lady's skin.

When Pink Lady is in her normal resting state she is so tactile, that she lived for a while on my shoulder yesterday and has a tendency to snuggle rather like a guinea pig in the crook of ones arm....  Here she is shown extended which she tends to do when provoked.

Ombre is IN

Ombre dyeing or Ombre in blogs, both seem to be very popular and I wondered if I have been subconciously affected... like in subliminal advertising... because what I am producing right now is the fade in fade out look of ombre.... Hey and didn't Tara say Tie die is really in right now... wasn't tie die in and out and in and out since forever... I do want that fade in out look for my Nudes.

Above is the next skin that I have produced... am I pleased with it..... well yeh, der.  And is it Ombre... well it is, if only you could see the entire fabric... OK I'll show you.... this afternoon.
Keep trying, tying and dyeing.