Handwoven Loom Controlled Shibori

Sometimes a customer likes my work, but wants something different. I welcome these challenges - although at times they seem daunting. A customer saw my new silk kimono's and really liked them, but as a petite she needed a different size. She also wanted it to be long and mainly black. Here is the one she tried on :

This one was done entirely with Procion dyes, but the only way to really get a good black on silk is with Acid dyes. So, that is why I decided to use Lanset dyes for the middle warp painted section. I wrote about this last week:
http://artweardesign.blogspot.com/2009/04/warp-painting-with-lanaset-dyes-in-10.html
From there I warped the loom as normal. I had 10" of hand dyed black, 10" warp painted, and 14" of hand dyed black (the extra 4" was to create a band to go on the front center). I used a monks belt threading. After every 12 shots of plain weave in a hand dyed black silk weft I raised either shafts 1-2 or 3-4 and put in a 'junk' weft.

After weaving 5 yards I cut it off the loom and pulled the junk weft tightly and tied it off. The warp (a silk noil from Treenway silks) compressed from 34" on the loom to 4" pulled tightly. In the original kimono, I used thickened dye to 'paint' the top of the compressed fabric - each side got a different color. Because I used dye both colors showed on the fabric. But, using the black any dye I used would be totally lost. Therefore, I decided to use paint and discharge techniques. I lightly painted one side with red fabric paint. The other side I used discharge paste which I steamed. This proved a wee bit trickier than I thought. Naturally, the sample was perfect-but I don't have a professional steamer and the fabric took up most of my steam pot. The paste was quite stubborn in removing the dye. After the first try- with minor success- I repainted the discharge paste on half of the cloth and steamed that. Then I did the other half. This proved to work a bit better. If I were to do more of this, though I definitely would need a bigger steamer.



I never put just one project on the loom - so there is another 5 yards waiting to be woven off. It is also black, warp painted and black. I haven't decided what I want to do with the shibori bits yet, though. I just got some shimmer paints from Pro Chem that I am itching to try, so some of them might just sneak into the next piece.



This technique was created by Catherine Ellis and she graciously shared her ideas with us in a book: Woven Shibori. If you are interested in this technique, I highly suggest adding this book to your collection. I, personally, am looking forward to exploring other ideas on my new (to me) 8 harness loom!