Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender1/24You’ll need: indigo dye, natural fabric, a needle and thread, a stencil (optional), and a few buckets or pots. Step one: Marking up the fabric using a Callishibori stencil prior to stitching.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender2/24After stitching, threads should be pulled up a little at a time.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender3/24Then they're pulled up very tightly and tied off to secure compact folds of fabric. It is this compactness which creates the resist.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender4/24A small indigo vat of about two gallons, in a bucket sitting in a flower pot. Bubble wrap between the two containers provides a layer of insulation. The vat sits in a garden tray, half of which is covered by a plastic mesh. Often shibori pieces are heavy with water, so rather than hang them up, it’s better to leave the bundle to drain and oxidize on a mesh. This keeps the drips down to a minimum.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender5/24The greenhouse is my dye house and is used in the summer months for summer school. There are usually about three to four vats in there of different strengths and various sizes—dustbins and kitchen bins—and they include natural indigo and synthetic indigo vats. I make organic vats in a stainless steel container, as they need to be heated.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender6/24Some cotton fabric with miru shibori circles has been dipped in this vat containing an alkali, a reducing agent, and indigo, which at this stage doesn’t look blue at all.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender7/24As soon as the fabric is lifted out of the vat, the oxidization starts to take place and we see the golden green color begin to change to indigo blue. We are witnessing a molecular change take place. This is the mesmerizing magic of indigo.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender8/24The area which has the stitching is slow to change as it sits and drains through the mesh into the drip tray. This shape will be the circular motif.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender9/24A bound sample has quickly oxidized in comparison to the freshly dipped piece. When this is finally undone, there will be little white square-ish shapes—ne maki shibori, or thread-resisted rings.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender10/24Further dips deepen the color and the oxidization continues.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender11/24The tops of the folds in the miru shibori shape have oxidized, but it is still very green inside the folds, and there is still some white—which is what we want. It needs more dips and a lot more oxidizing.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender12/24A piece which has been dyed several times is beginning to be undone and reveals some of the resisted areas. Always an exciting time.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender13/24A stitched piece being undone.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender14/24Peering into the indigo vat after a few dips. The vat appears green-gold. There are many different recipes for making an indigo vat and many different types of containers.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender15/24A much stronger vat.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender16/24The rinsing station—an old bath found on a skip—with the garden hose. The setup has proved invaluable for summer school.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender17/24A good place to do the dyeing in. This is where the Merlette pieces were dyed.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender18/24And here’s the vat in the bath.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender19/24Once the dyeing is done, the lid is put on and a warm covering.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender20/24(continued)
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender21/24These separate motifs, in this case circles, worked independently, are known as miru shibori. They are worked on the fold with concentric rows of stitching. There are many techniques which make them look different. When smaller motifs with fewer rows are worked together, the pattern is known as Karamatsu shibori.
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender22/24Karamatsu with indigo
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender23/24Karamatsu with logwood and indigo
Photo: Courtesy of Jane Callender24/24The pieces are rinsed off and hung to dry in the garden.
