shibori ties

We've been super busy over here at noon creating our fabrics for our Holiday line, due out in late November. While Marianne was out on the west coast honing in on her natural dye skills, I was preparing the fabrics for dying with the traditional Japanese tying method of shibori. This wad of tied fabric is about 8 yards of an organic hemp/cotton blend. It's been bound and tied with rubber bands. When we dye the fabric, the dye will absorb only into the exposed areas of fabric. This will create our pattern. The rubber bands will also create a resist, making white lines through out the pattern. I love this part of the process, the twisting and tying of the fabric. It's an exhausting but rewarding use of my hands. After it's dyed, and I remove the rubber bands, the cloth will have a "memory" of where it's been tied, and it will look like an entire landscape of mini-mountains. We will then press it lightly, but allow some of the memory to remain, and make some new totes with it.

jane