Category Archives: contemporary shibori

Silk Shibori Ribbon Workshop

2 Replies
Circus

In studying all the workshop possibilities (and there are many!) I have added two workshops to the shop.

First, the ever requested silk shibori ribbon making workshop. In the past I have taught arashi shibori in general but there are some very specific points and techniques when it comes to making the ribbon. This workshop will be specifically on making the ribbon.

I have been producing the ribbon since 2006 and I know there is no one who knows more about making it than myself. Yes, I can confidently say that!

So, if you would like to learn the techniques from an expert, from the originator of this product that has been copied and sold all around the world, then this link is for you! You will complete a 10 yard roll of silk shibori ribbon. You can elect to take home your entire ten yard length in the color of your making, or you can cut and trade colors with other participants! Your choice!

This workshop is scheduled for September 10, 2022 and limited to 5 participants. If you find this workshop has filled, contact me and I will add you to a list to reserve you a spot in a second workshop.

**************************************************************************

The second workshop to be listed is an in-person version of the Tekumo Shibori workshop I offered a couple of times over Zoom in 2020/2021. It was fun over Zoom but I’ve really wanted to do this in person. My favorite way to do tekumo shibori is on silk organza because I love the colors as well as the extreme texture you can get with it. I will also have the indigo vat available with some cotton or silk if you want to try that too but the focus will be with tekumo on silk organza.
Each of 6 participants will have materials provided as well as the option to take home their own tekumo shibori stand.
Tekumo shibori involves using a special shibori hook to “grab” the fabric and a small bobbin of thread to wrap and bind the gathered cloth. We will dye, bind, discharge, overdye and steam set the cloth. I will have various samples of things you can do with this very sculptural resulting cloth but I’m sure you will have your own ideas as well! You will take home an assortment of tekumo shibori fabrics to use in your own projects.

Here is the link for the Tekumo Shibori In-Studio Workshop on September 24th.

I hope you can join us for one or both of the workshops. If you have any questions please contact me.
*****************************************

Zooming right along…

1 Reply

After many requests to host an online version of the recently posted in-studio of the tekumo shibori workshop, I am posting up a Zoom version of it now.

This workshop will occur over 4 one and a half hour sessions. Each session includes a 30 minute question and answer/sharing section. The four sessions are divided as follows:

Workshop sign up link

Session 1: Preparation and materials (kits will be available for preorder) Setting up your workspace and fabric choice advice. Various dye choices will be also presented.
Session 2: Tekumo demonstration and practice, troubleshooting, and best techniques for successful tekumo shibori
Session 3: Discharge and overdyeing demo, steaming set up.
Session 4: Unbinding your pieces, sharing results and critique. Tips for designing fabric with tekumo designs. Exploring the possibilities with your new sculptural fabrics. (There will be a separate online workshop on making the Wishing Star flowers with the tekumo shibori organza that you can sign up for later.)

Session dates:
Consecutive Thursdays- August 5th, 12th, 19,th & 26th
4 PM PST

Participants need to have adequate technical ability and internet connection to participate in an online zoom workshop. Please download the free Zoom application to your device (preferably a laptop or ipad/notebook rather than a mobile phone for optimal experience) and create your free password protected account . If you are not familiar with this app, then practice ahead of time with a friend prior to the workshop.

The sessions will be recorded for those participating so you can replay them after the session or in case you should miss a session (some people may be participating from various time zones).The recordings will be available during the workshop and for two weeks thereafter.
I will write up notes after each session with highlights as a reference for you and send via email the day following the session.

My intention is to create an online workshop that has as much of a “hands on” feel as possible with lots of student participation and sharing of your screen. Please have your device’s audio and video capabilities engaged. I believe this will lead to the best outcome for all (as opposed to a more lecture type workshop).

I will also have an offsite password protected site on wordpress where you can log in and post results and ask questions between sessions. This site will be available for 6 weeks.

Cost will be $120 for the 4 session workshop and a tekumo materials kit will be available for purchase ahead of time. Kit will include the shibori hook and stand, bobbin, & thread for $58. A separate fabrics set will be available for $35 and will include a variety of silks and some cotton. Feel free to use your own fabrics but know that I will be focusing on silk-especially silk organza for its sculptural qualities. But for the tekumo technique itself, any fabric will do. Plan to practice this technique to become proficient and gain the most from exploring this traditional shibori technique and adding your own 21st century “twist”!

Two materials kits are offered, although not required in order to join the workshop.

Tekumo Shibori Workshop

5 Replies

Tekumo is fun once you have mastered the movement of your hands. It’s especially exciting with silk organza that takes on not only vibrant colors but also crisp shapes. Come join us to explore the possibilities!
All the pieces are in place and two dates are scheduled.

Session One-Friday and Saturday July 30 & 31
Day One: 10 AM-4 PM (with lunch/rest break included)
Day Two: 11 AM-4 PM (with lunch/rest break included)

Session Two-Friday and Saturday August 20 & 21
Day One: 10 AM-4 PM (with lunch/rest break included)
Day Two: 11 AM-4 PM (with lunch/rest break included)

Please visit the shop link for further details.

Tekumo workshop


10 Replies

The other day I met up with some special friends at the botanical garden in the afternoon and went through the butterfly pavilion again.

South coast botanic garden SOAR exhibit

When I returned back home, I was inspired to finish the dyeing and steaming of a set of pieces I’ve been working on.

and the crowd goes wild!

When I look at these, I see you. All of your creativity, your joie de vivre, and your unique voice. Keep singing…

I also get emails…

9 Replies

I like letters better. Sometimes, emails get weird.

It all started with an email. Well, actually it started with a $30 donation. Followed by an email.

“Hi I am interested in learning the folding technique of the feather arashi scarf. Anne Selby uses this technique. Do you know how its done.”

Hmmm… my reply:

“Thank you for contacting me.  I see you already do quite a bit of shibori on silk.  I have never seen Anne Selby’s work in person but online it looks very beautiful.  I have been a fan of Karren Brito’s work for some time and I think she did this folded technique first.  I have done something similar in the past but never did it on a large scale, however did discover how it was done.
I try to make my work unique through experimentation as I often find that this process takes me down my own path- one I would not have gone down by being told the exact process by someone who discovered it in their own way.  Since it is a signature styling of Anne Selby- have you asked her?  Perhaps she is not wanting to share that.  It’s not that it’s a “secret” but I’m sure she went through many trials and errors in order to create it.  Honestly, I wouldn’t feel very good about explaining how someone else goes about creating their signature look.  I am very sure you could figure this out on your own if you worked at it through trial and error. In that process, you would likely discover something very new and interesting yourself! Try it!
Yes, there are shortcuts in life- but it is not unlike driving through the countryside at 100 MPH versus riding along that same country road on a bicycle…you see and learn so much more along the way.
I see you just sent a donation through my blog.  I thank you.  I hope you find the blog of use.  If you feel that you want a refund of this donation based on this reply, let me know.    Your work is lovely as well.  Best regards.”

Then a reply:

“Thank you for replying so quickly.  I gave you Anne Selby as an example to give you an idea as to what I was talking about.  Anne Selby does not own the technique, yes I did see it in Karren Brito’s book. I guess there is not a copyright on the  Feather Boa technique.  Shibori is an ancient art form that goes back hundreds of years not only in Japan but in many other countries in the world.  Yoshiko Wade has been working very hard to preserve the techniques of Shibori.  She has been doing it by sharing, because she knows that is the only way to keep Shibori alive.  Anne Selby did not invent this technique.  She did invent the Arashi wrapping machine.  Anna Lisa Hedstrom has put out 3 DVD’s, she has held nothing back.
Thank you for your words of wisdom.  I am happy Yoshiko Wada and Anna Lisa Hedstrom do not think as you do.  Shibori would be dead.”

Ok… “shibori would be dead?”  my reply:

“No, there is no copyright on any shibori technique.  I am still curious as to why you asked me about the technique Ann Selby specializes in.  Why not ask her?  Perhaps you have and she has not seen fit to share it with you.  I don’t know.  I am sure you have seen my work and that I don’t show this type of pleating online.  Respectfully, I think this is a question for Anne Selby.
I find it interesting that you choose to characterize me as someone who doesn’t share what I know.  As you know, I have free online shibori classes, I have been teaching shibori at museums, private workshops and international conventions for over 10 years now. I have literally taught 1000’s of people directly and in person not to mention the over 10 years of blogging on the subject.
I think that shibori is more widespread as a result of my work-not less. Saying that shibori would be dead as a result of my attitude is complete nonsense. Saying such things says more about you than it does about me.
Please consider what you say before you say it.  I am returning your donation.

Thankfully, today is a new day. And I know what my own intention is-regardless of how it is viewed from the outside.

Oh yeah, I made these. Just experimenting with silk shibori felt and vintage silk. Wondering.

update…after seeing some other issues like this online (where someone was being derided for not “sharing” their signature technique) I am prompted to add that there are good reasons to doing something the hard way. The struggle, while temporarily uncomfortable, allows you to experience and overcome uncertainty and anxiety. As you increase your skills through trial and error you will be able to experience exuberant surges of your own creativity that you simply will not achieve through following step by step instructions.

 

 

 

transferrence

1 Reply

I have lots of ideas in my head.  They need transference to my hands.  This week I was able to accomplish a couple of these.  Ideas are really nothing until action is visited upon them.  Firstly, this-

silk gauze cording

Silk shibori gauze tubing.  In the testing stages and time will be needed to ramp it up into  production mode.  More endless possibilities.  I will be selling this by the yard on a retail only level in the new year-limited colors to begin with.  More on this to follow.  Maybe no one will love it like I do but this is the sort of thing that feeds my soul.  I conquered the ribbon.  I need a new and more challenging conquest.   I found a couple pendants that matched this colorway…

pendents

Watermarked Photo 1 (2015-12-12-1025)

Sorry for the crappy photo-taken on the fly.  But more wondering about silk shibori ribbon bead embroidery.  This is interesting on a few levels.  Firstly, because it is from scraps that customers don’t want. I love that.  When customers started complaining that the ends of their ribbon rolls were ugly, I started cutting them off and saving them for myself.  I thought they were the most interesting part of the roll.  Go figure.  That’s been the story of my life.  So here I have a huge box of “ends” that I don’t even put into scrap bags.  Mine, all mine!!  Now when I make a roll of ribbon I try to make the “ugliest” ends possible!  It suits me.

Secondly, Katrina and I have been busy finalizing our Silk Experience calendar for the Houston Quilt Festival 2016. It’s now finished and checked off the list.  One of the new teachers has a lightweight gridded single sided fusible product that I ordered a sample of. I have other ideas for it but in the meantime, it occurred to me to try it for my shibori ribbon brooch/pendant sample for the class I submitted to Quilts Inc. for next year.  It works great for quickly stabilizing a pleated design with the ribbon.  Just arrange and pin the ribbon to the stabilizer and hit with some steam from the back side quickly – easily holding the ribbon in place prior to beading.  This can also be done with sections of the ribbon that I see art quilters using.  Just a simple thing really, but useful.

And some of what is heading to Italy…soon

ribbon brillante!

In indigo shibori news, Buddy loves his linen pillows. Silly dog.

buddy

 

just wondering

67 Replies

the reduction of something to nothing more than a commodity is what you are doing. 

are you aware of what you are doing? do you even care? 

to copy the work of another without a thought other than to gain monetary enrichment – is money your God? 

do you understand from where the material you work with eminates? how it comes into being? do you teach others of this eminence? do you reach for the deepest understanding through your work and pass that knowledge along? or are you just seeking financial rewards in the moment, unaware and uncaring of that which you may destroy along the way? 

please think about what you are doing. 

I realize it may be hard to understand when there really is no intention other than personal enrichment- but try to imagine another view. 

I really don’t know what else to say.  

  

  

  

   

日本から、おやすみなさい。

wondering leads down new paths… and back again

19 Replies

It’s true, my blogging sabbatical is over.  It was never really “official”, whatever that means, but in the 9 months in which I haven’t blogged here I have been missing it.  Missing you, those of you who don’t partake in the flurry of other social media offerings.

What exactly do I miss about it?  I miss the wordier, more thoughtful, slower pace of writing a blog post as opposed to the quick quip on Facebook or a clever (maybe) image on Instagram.  If I want to give myself a sorry excuse, I will say I have been very busy these past months. I am quite thankful for that as there have been times when I wondered…financially speaking, if continuing was the way to go.  But being my persistent self, yes, once again persistence was the way.

Often over the past nine months I have thought- “Oh!  I should blog about that.”  Then I let it be and carried on in my work and the moment passed.  (Sometimes for the better I will admit.)

Blogging is more like a homemade meal, often with ingredients right out of your own garden. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the rest are more akin to a fast food joint- you’re in and you’re out. Things can happen in fits and bits.  That is what I have noticed.  And while I work out in the dye studio I can keep up with all that on my phone in a staccato-like way.  I can even throw up a photo ever so easily as I work.(Squirrelly Gurl says Hello!) Throw out a comment or two, commiserate, cheer on, congratulate, and send birthday wishes to people (some of whom I actually know!)  But in the end,  it’s the words and thoughts I miss.  Expression in a different form.

So, even if you can only stop in for a home cooked meal every now and then, come on by- I’ll be here stirring the pot a bit.

Some images from 2014 on your way out, great thanks to all who were a part of it- enjoy, create and wonder!!  We need more wonder in the world…

things flow through

8 Replies

i have always liked figuring things out.  a production run is like a puzzle of sorts.
one must figure out and streamline the entire process.  thinking about such things as efficiency, energy, materials. the order of things.  and most importantly, the FLOW.  beautywood

the flow can refer to many things- the physical space in which i work-allowing me to move through my workspace without hinderance.  the flow of energy as i choose and mix the colors, prepare the silk, thinking several steps ahead of myself so as to maintain that flow.

the flow of work in and out of here as orders come and go, the flow of communication with all of those who email,comment,ask,etc..the flow of paperwork, money, and of course time.

but most of all i enjoy the process of transition. of taking something rather plain and mundane (although i can say that the miracle of the silkworm is anything but mundane!) and turning it into something else by hand.

so, lots of shibori ribbon being made here at the moment. if i have overlooked an email, been tardy in sending you something promised-please send me a little reminder nudge and accept a proforma mea culpa from me.  i appreciate your patience.

in all this busyness, i have quite forgotten to post here about the upcoming workshop with Richard!

speaking of flow. one also needs to refill the vessel and when Richard and I get together for a workshop that is part of the intention- to give you lots to wonder about- to get your flow going-or back into the flow.
good grief…in my mind i had done it!  but alas no- just on Facebook and constant contact. there are still a couple of spaces.  and several requests to Skype/broadcast the workshop which we will be accommodating as well (figuring this out now).  this workshop will combine itajime AND mandalas. you will learn both in the first two days.  on the third day you can work on whichever one (or both) is moving you-and get into your own flow.  patterns of time and space

of course we will be working on the process, the technique, of folding and dyeing and resisting-but also larger concepts of time and space in regards to patterns.  patterns are everywhere-in nature and in life.  sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture to see them.

-some of Richard’s recent work-it just keeps on getting better and better (of course). he recently completed his first continuous 10 meter cloth which is slated to be make into a summer yukata. now THAT’s impressive!
the amazing itajime of Richard Carbin

and just a reminder-  have a 2 day  indigo workshop coming up at the Japanese American National Museum Feb 1 & 2.  We will be working on shibori and indigo and creating a boro-esque indigo scarf from our bounty.  Call the Museum to register- 213.625.0414

じゃまた！