Experimenting with Shibori Dyeing

This past weekend I took a shibori dyeing class at Brooklyn Craft Company and it was so much fun!  I've always wanted to try it out, but It seemed complicated and living in a small space with no utility sink or room to make a inky blue mess I figured this class was my chance to go dye crazy (and I did!).

 I'm totally in love with the whole process. By folding the fabric certain ways and adding resists, like rubber bands, wood blocks, and string you'll get different patterns. It's kinda like origami meets tye-dye. There's a lot of chance at play too, so even when you use the same technique the outcome will most likely vary. That's the beauty of the process to me- that wonderful moment when you untie your fabric and see what you've got. I dyed lots of pieces and each one is completely different.

We used this kit to make the indigo dye. To create the resists and hold the folds in place we used wood blocks, rubber bands, thick popsicle sticks, and clamps. You'll also need a bucket for the dye, rubber gloves, and a drying rack. It was amazing to have a big space to work out of, because this got messy real fast. The most beautiful kind of mess indigo blue drips, pools of cyan, and dyed wooden blocks.

I'm wondering what I should make with the samples I made. I dyed a bunch of linen scraps I had from my handkerchiefs. Any Ideas?

If you want to give shibori dyeing a go you can check out these great how-to posts by Design*Sponge (which Brooklyn Craft Co. contributed) and HonestlyWTF.