16.5" x 18.75" Linen panel, indigo vat dyed after hira-nui and ori-nui shibori stitching by Carlyn Clark

Hira-nui Shibori Panel Dyed in the Indigo Vat

October 31, 2016

After a couple of months focused on moving, setting up my studio and being generally distracted I'm happy to be back in the dye studio. Back in June I took a workshop with Glennis Dolce of Shibori Girls Studio at the Japanese American National Museum where I learned a number of traditional Japanese Shibori practices. Some of my favorites are the stitching practices. There are endless possibilities.

Linen panel after hira-nui shibor stitching by Carlyn Clark

Here is the piece after stitching. The next step is to dampen the cloth and then pull up the threads. The fabric is fairly coarse, so it doesn't allow the gathers to be very tight.

16.5" x 18.75" Linen panel (reverse side) , indigo vat dyed after hira-nui and ori-nui shibori stitching by Carlyn Clark

I'm always interested to see the difference between the front and back sides.

Every morning as I sit down at my work table I pull up an @oblique_se. Today's seems to particularly align with my mood.

Mending while camping, using hand-dyed indigo thread available on my website

New stock added. Oversold natural indigo dyed mending thread is back in stock. This cotton covered poly thread is stronger than pure cotton and takes the indigo dye beautifully, with little specks of undyed poly peeking through for an almost sparkly effect. It's strong enough for mending jeans but thin enough for most stitching and embroidery projects. The natural indigo will fade harmoniously as you launder your jeans. If thread sales are an indication, the dog days of the pandemic are inspiring people to dig into those baskets of damaged clothes with lots of first timers giving mending a try. It's put up in short skeins so its an affordable starter thread. The indigo dye started as seeds in my dye garden. I use this thread in Arashi Shibori processes and carefully unwind it as I pull off the dyed textiles. Nothing goes to waste! I can put up longer skeins if needed, pm me

Finished a pile. Now to assemble

Individual photos of the January 2021 Take a Stitch Tuesday stitches. I've written about the processes on my blog. Link to my website is on my bio #tastembroidery #takeastitchtuesday #pintangletast #handembroidered #stitchersofinstagram #linkedchainstitch #flystitch #italianborderstitch #blanketstitch #reverseblanketbarstitch #stemstitch #portuguesestemstitch

New thread colorway added to my shop. #handdyedthreads #bluethread #mendingthread #handstitching #varigatedthread #dyedthreads #dyedbyhand #denimfriendly #mendingjeans

More thread into a vat. Blending colors for stitching on collage. #handdyedthreads #stitchedcollage #dyersofinstagram #dyedthreads #dyeart #dyework #blue #multicoloredthread

There was a run on indigo dyed thread on my website over the holidays and I'm almost out. Today I'm trying out fiber reactive dyes on a few skeins to see how that works. Takes a lot less water than indigo processing which is an ongoing concern in SoCal.