Another 'pole wrap' experiment

Thanks to some suggestions from Connie Rose, whose work with pole wrap shibori is truly amazing, I have had another breakthrough in my experiments in 'pole wrap' (or in my case, 'bucket wrap') shibori. I had been very neatly wrapping my garment with rows of cord or sinew, then scrunching down to compact and create the resist pattern. What I was getting was nice, tidy rows of color in an "oh, too even", pattern. I asked Connie how she was able to get such beautiful patterns that resembled tree branches. What I got from her description was that I needed to be more relaxed in both my wrapping and my scrunching. For my first experiment, I used this tank:

This was one I wrapped on PVC pipine, and the overlap of the garment prevented a good wrap pattern.

Here it is with the over dye using the method described above:

The shirt wasn't quite dry when I took the pictures, so it looks a little darker than it is. But the organic pattern I achieved with the more relaxed wrap is what I have been striving for all along, and even though the original wrap pattern shows, I think the two blend well together. At any rate, I'm very pleased with the progress this change has helped me to make... thanks, Connie!

New quilt

I have been working on a quilt for someone to give as a baby gift, and finally finished it and got it in the mail yesterday. Since they live in the mountains, she wanted a mountain scene, and I love doing those.

It was a little difficult to get a good picture because this is not a 'hanging' quilt', but I got my trusty step ladder out!

Had some difficulty with thread breaking for awhile, then gave up on using cotton quilt thread and pulled out some cotton/poly thread... no more problems!

Meanwhile, I've been hit with several sales from my ArtFire shop, which was nice! And I have a backlog of dyeing to catch up on... life is good!

Starz & Stripes

I love this pattern! After several years of trying for a 'Flag' look, I think this one is a keeper! I did use older dyes which came out more faded than I would have liked, but the pattern itself is one I plan to do a lot more, using fresh dyes. I planned to keep this one anyway, so the fact that it's faded is no biggie. I'll be wearing this to the Flagstaff Tea Party tomorrow... Happy Independence Day!

More Pole Wrap experiments

Yesterday, I overdyed the black/tan tank that had a ghost image of the straps and neckline. I think it's an improvement over the first version:

Then I went out and bought one of those big orange buckets at Home Depot, and tried it out on a new tank:

I actually used black dye, but didn't have the 'scrunches' tight enough in the middle area, so there was very little pattern. I ran it through a bleach bath (have no idea what the bleach:water ratio was... just added bleach to hot water and soaked for awhile!). At any rate, the pattern is now more visible, and I am greatly encouraged by the fact that I didn't get any 'ghost' patterns. My next experiment, I plan to do a couple of things differently. I want to angle the striping, so will need to probably tack with masking tape while I wrap with string (btw, it takes lots of string to do this around a bucket!). I may also try using some thread to stitch the outer edges together across the back side of the bucket. I will take pictures so you can see the stages. Meanwhile, let me know what you think!

Update on Pole wrap experiments

I re-wrapped one of the tanks I posted about last night, and overdyed to see if I could get a better image on the back. Here are pix of the result:

If you compare these to the pictures from last night's post, you won't see too much of a difference on the front, but the back has a much more distinct design, particularly on the right side of the back. I'm pleased that I was able to add more design, but I think my next experiment is going to be using either a bucket or a large circular trash can to try and avoid the overlapping fabric. I know there is a way to do this! I'll keep you posted...

Pole Wrap shibori

For several years, I have been trying to use the pole wrap method of shibori to create designs on my clothing items. It is a challenge to wrap a shirt or tank around a pole, wrap with twine or sinew, and 'scrunch' the garment down to create ridges in a manner that creates a striped design. I have seen examples where people use large sewer piping and fabric, and the designs are beautiful. But trying to replicate the look on a shirt using a smaller diameter pipe has not netted the results I have been trying for. But recently, I have begun to try again, making adjustments to how I position the shirt or tank, how I wrap with the twine or sinew, and how I apply the dyes. Today, I got some interesting results, at least on part of the garments:

The pink/dark one is a little different than what I usually get because I folded it down the middle, matching the armholes, in order to get a 'mirror' image.
Here are the backs:

The pink/dark came out weird because part of the back was covered over and the dark dye didn't penetrate. It's not so bad on the black/camel, but notice that there is like a 'ghost' image of the armhole and strap on the right side of the image.

I am in the process of overdyeing the pink/dark, wrapped to expose the under-dyed area, so I will post an update tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Market Phair

Yesterday, I set up my booth at a small parking lot venue downtown, to see if I could shrink my massive tie-dye inventory a little. There were about 8 vendors there, and we were taking advantage of the foot traffic from the local Farmers' Market. There was a music festival going on at Heritage Square in the afternoon as well.

Here is my booth:

As you can tell by the position of the clothes, the wind was doing it's thing, but I had weights to hold the canopy down. Don't know if you can see it, but there is a pink plastic bag at the base of the clothing rack. When I went to put the rack together, I discovered that one of the castors was missing! Found it later in the garage. Then, when I put up the canopy, I discovered that one of the plastic connectors on the top had broken, but later found some duck tape in my supply bin, so I used it to hold the cross-piece in place. Then.... THEN, my almost new folding chair broke! Luckily, we were set up in the parking lot of a restaurant that has some patio furniture set up outside, so I was able to borrow one of their chairs, or I would have been standing all day... too much!


Here are pix of a couple of gals who came by and 'Hoop Danced' using hula hoops, while a young man was beating a drum... very cute!

The gal on the right was really into this... next time I need to figure out how to use my video on my camera!
Well, after a slow morning, things picked up and by the time we broke down at 3pm, I had more than made rent, and plan to do it again July 5th.... shades of yesteryear!