Silk dyed with natural dyes ~ Lac, Brazilwood, Buckthorn and Cutch. Printed using Japanese Mokume (woodgrain) Shibori stitching technique.
Silk Mokume Shibori
Tag Archives: shibori
Merino Wool~ Logwood Natural Dye
These very soft, lightweight, Merino Wool scarves have been dyed with Logwood Natural Dye. I’ve added a touch of Lac, also a natural dye, to give a bit more of a reddish, more intense purple. The patterns are created using Japanese Nui Shibori stitching techniques. Very labour intensive but I’m pleased with the results.
Continue readingCochineal Dye
These scarves have both been dyed with Cochineal natural dye, which comes from tiny insects found on cactus plants. I’ve only used a bit of dye to give this soft pink colour. One scarf is Merino wool, the other is silk. Printed using Japanese Shibori resist technique.
Some dye experiments
Linen dyed with iron, weld and logwood 
Merino wool dyed with iron, weld and osage 
Silk dyed with iron, weld and logwood
Some experiments with natural dyes. Looking for interesting colours in the grey, brown neutral range. Using a bit of iron with weld and several other natural dyes. I’m happy with the complexity of the colours of the various combinations.
Indigo and Logwood
I have been dyeing more scarves, a silk/cotton blend from India, using natural dyes.
A lot of Indigo and some Logwood.
More Scarves with Natural Dyes and Shibori
I’ve been working with silk from India, experimenting with combinations of Indigo, Persimmon, Rust, Logwood and Pomegranate natural dyes and various Shibori techniques.
Indigo/Shibori/Silk
This Indigo/Shibori/Silk Scarf is a good example of a few of the reasons why I fell madly in love with “Textile Arts”.
Silk is definitely my fabric of choice. The transformation by silk worms of mulberry leaves into the delicate gossamer yet amazingly strong threads of silk is magical.
Indigo is most certainly the queen of natural dyes. How can you not be in awe at watching the change in colours of fabric that has just been removed from an indigo vat change slowly from greens to those gorgeous blues? Pure alchemy!
Jamdani Dyed with Indigo and Rust
Jamdani Silk Dyed with Indigo and Rust
Silk Jamdani dyed with Indigo and Rust.
This is a piece of silk Jamdani fabric that I brought back from Calcutta last February. Jamdani weaving is found in Bengal and Bangladesh. It is a supplementary weft technique of weaving, somewhat similar to tapestry. The standard weft creates a fine, sheer fabric while the supplementary weft with thicker threads, in this case metallic red and gold threads, adds the pattern. Each supplementary weft motif is added separately by hand by interlacing the weft threads into the warp with fine bamboo sticks using individual spools of thread. The traditional art of weaving Jamdani has been declared by Unesco as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.