Dyeing the MLH Swatches: Arashi Shibori with Priscilla Lynch

Pris Lynch shows us the color of the
fabric/dye we'll be using.

Each guild that belongs to the Michigan League of Handweavers donates swatches to an annual swatch collection every 6 years or so, and our turn came up this year.  So, because we don't do much weaving like the other 20 or so guilds, one of our members who is an expert at dyeing and using the Japanese shibori technique of arashi (pole wrapped resist), Priscilla Lynch, led us through the dyeing process at our Feb. 5 meeting.  It took her a lot of months of preplanning to get everything decided on how we would do this in one evening, but not only did we dye enough cotton fabric for swatches, a number of members got to dye their own fabric.  We used a technique which gives a diagonal and very organic looking random striping for the arashi shibori.

The fabric was cut into long strips, sewn into tubes (for horizontal stripes) or for diagonal stripes, one corner was turned down along the opposite edge into a triangle, and sewing the tube/seam began at that point and continued along the edges creating a spiral tube.  Results of the dyeing will be another post soon!

Sue Vegter stands with pole that has
fabric tube pushed down into pleats
and ready for the dye bath.

Poles with fabric in buckets of dye.

Buckets and poles all lined up on
plastic ready for dyeing session.

Pris showed us this piece of fabric on which she had first dyed horizontal stripes; then cut the fabric and redyed the pieces the opposite way for a very dynamic and unusual look.