Itajime and origami shibori are related. If you have been following Karren Brito’s blog, you’ll know she is teaching us how to do origami shibori based on a workshop she recently attended taught by Pat Freiert (beautiful new website!). Itajime, being the fold and clamp method of shibori, one can come up with any number of ways to fold the fabric. Studying origami only expands the number of ways one can come up with to fold the pieces before clamping and dyeing. Origami shibori not only includes itajime but as Karren shows us, the fabric can be folded using traditional origami folds and then tied as in kumo shibori before dyeing.
In a recent post on searches I came across this book which I purchased and have been looking over. The book, Folded Flowers: Fabric Origami with a Twist of Silk Ribbon by Kumiko Sudo , outlines various methods of making fabric flowers with fabric and ribbon using origami techniques. I was adapting some of the flower making origami folds to my shibori ribbon and could not help but want to make some of the folds with plain silk and THEN apply shibori dyeing techniques on top of that much like what Karren is doing but with the twist of flower making added. Photos later this week.
While taking the above photo of the teal itajime piece, I became frustrated by having to deal with the silk blowing in the breeze while I was trying to take a picture. Then I became obsessed with photographing the silk blowing in the wind. ( I can distract myself to no end these days it seems!) What I ended up with is a very interesting series of photos of the movement of the silk and the pattern which I am developing in photoshop. I’ll post the results when it is complete. My photoshop skills are lacking but I’m trying to improve by just practicing.
Incidentally, the above piece was base dyed teal which discharges to bright orange (late last night around midnight so no photo) and by morning had faded to the color in the photograph. I notice that whenever I discharge teal to orange, much of the orange fades to light grey/green. Is this due to oxidation or is it a photo chemical reaction? I must investigate this more.
(Please note- I have turned of commenting on this old post (from 2007-it’s now 2013) as it is attracting lots of spam commenting and I am tired of deleting them. If you have a question, just email me.)
Shibori Girl 
If you dicharge gentliler, lower concentration or shorter time, you can keep more of the orange. True, the orange always looks brighter when wet. I see a tinge of orange aroung the turquoise in the blowing silk photo.
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the interesting thing is that i hung the piece on the line to dry and when i removed the clothespins, the silk underneath the clothespins was bright orange while the rest of the silk had changed color. so i imagine that exposure to either light or oxygen also affected the color. i posted this question to the DYERSlist and will see what others have to say as well. thanks for the tip on a more gentle discharge- will try that next time i want more orange.
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Karren’s blog is great, and i am gonna have to try this soon.
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I want to know the difference between Isometric fold and Isosceles fold.
thanks,Prabha
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