my creative space - shibori

I'm early with my creative space this week, I couldn't wait to share. On Saturday I finally got to a Shibori workshop which is something that I've been wanting to do for ages. Somehow though the workshops always clashed with other commitments. Even better it was held at Koskela, a great new creative showroom space in Rosebery which shares digs with a big cafe called Kitchen by Mike and Megan Morton's The School.

This great workshop was run by professional textile artists Karen and Pepa of Shibori. They took time to talk about the history of shibori and explain some different methods of resist techniques, made up the vat of indigo dye and then turned us loose on the fabric!

The three techniques we got to play with were:
Arashi - pole wrapping shibori
Kumo - spiderweb (the circles)
Itajime - shape resist

Shibori is a surface dye which means that only the parts on the outside, in contact with the dye solution will dye at full strength. So the pattern is composed of different shades of blue against white depending on which areas are covered.

Here are some photos from the day, one of my lovely friends Janet and Marg holding up their kumo shibori, and even a (rare) photo of me with mine. I loved Marg's square itajime print which she made at the last minute, the square pattern up top. The effect of the dye on the dry fabric was wonderful. I also loved the pole wrapped singlet top that one of the girls made, the picture below mine. Actually there were lots of great results on the day, and lots of oohing and aahing as some of the prettier effects were revealed.

At the end of the lesson the three of us bought a dye kit to make up our own vat. I can't wait to play more with this fascinating technique. The great thing about Shibori is the random way the different variables come together for a unique result. Unwrapping each fabric parcel is a wonderful surprise.

After the workshop we queued up to have lunch at Kitchen by Mike. Luckily this slow cooked Lamb Tagine with couscous was worth the wait. Add in a little stop at Remnants Warehouse (just around the corner) on the way home and you have a perfect day!

Thank you to everyone who entered the Planner Giveaway, and Personal Planners for giving us such a great prize. The winner chosen by the old reliable random number peeps is Carly from the Crafted by Carly blog. In a nice coincidence I see she has a Donna Hay giveaway going on now, so if you missed out why not try your luck over there.