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Binding material to produce a pattern In principle, shibori tie-dye involves immersing cloth into a dye liquor to color it. Define power meter. Shibori’s delicate patterns are expressed by leaving certain areas in the original color, often referred to as “white”, undyed or resist dyed.

In other words, the beauty of a competed shibori pattern will be decided by how to keep some parts “white.” The most typical way to make the pattern leaving “white” is to bind the cloth with thread so that the dye liquor doesn’t reach certain parts. However, of course, this simple method alone is insufficient for creating the elaborate shibori patterns. During its long history, experienced and knowledgeable craftspeople contrived a variety of methods for creating different patterns. There is a certain beauty only shibori tie-dye can depict that other fabric decoration methods such as painting and tracing cannot. Elaborate and honed shibori techniques have been devised over generations, and passed down to today. Release binding to unfurl the design Shirome (cloth with bindings before dyeing) The area to be kept white (undyed part) is bound with thread and is called 'shirome,' or “white of the eye”. Every “shirome” bind is made firmly by the hand of experienced craftspeople one by one, which never allows the dye liquor to pass through.

There is no painting directly on the cloth or added colors into the layer of cloth - Shibori is such a unique technique in which craftspeople focus most of their concentration on creating “undyed” areas. Different methods of making shirome. One kind of shirome represents large waves and the other represents water’s surface. Unbinding and Steaming There are some binding techniques requiring extreme fingertip dexterity to manually produce individual beads of shirome.

Sometimes a craftsperson patiently makes extraordinary numbers of shirome reaching well beyond 100,000 bindings only on one cloth taking several years to complete. Ito-toki or unbinding is the process of removing all the thread from the cloth. They pull the cloth quickly and firmly but not so much as to cause damage to the cloth; a process requiring constant delicate power adjustments. Then, the cloth is steamed to remove unnecessary twists and creases. The moment of unbinding.

After steaming. Basic Process of Kyo Kanoko Shibori There are several different Kyo Kanoko Shibori techniques but basically, the production process remains the same from start to finish. The entire process is divided into various stages and a different craftsperson undertakes each stage. Division of labor is one of the characteristics of shibori tie-dye in Kyoto. Shitae (Design) Left: Sketch of design is applied with blue ink. Right: Place the stencil on the fabric and rub blue ink over the stencil.

Ito-ire (Sewing) Left: Fabric with thread sewn around the outlines of sketch. Right: Sew the fabric with thread following the contours of the design. Kukuri (Binding for tie-dye) Gather the sewn parts together firmly to form cylinders, and bind with thread from bottom to top.