Shibori Techniques - Behind the Scenes Workshop
Last week, our bookbindress, Jessie, brought her talents at dyeing fabric to the Blue Sky Papers studio and led a workshop in Shibori Techniques.
Jessie first learned about Shibori at school, and is now showing and teaching the rest of our team how she achieves these beautiful, indigo patterns.
At the start of the workshop, Jessie demonstrated the necessary tools and ingredients. If attempting to DIY shibori at home, make sure you pre-wash your fabric in hot water with detergent. Jessie recommends using Synthrapol, a generic, but professional, textile detergent.
Afterwards, let your fabric dry, and then once you've applied one of the Shibori-style binding variations to your fabric, pre-soak it in a soda ash solution for 15 minutes.
Clamps, rubber bands and mini vices helped hold complicated and experimental folds together while we applied the dye to our fabric.
Everyone, from customer service to shipping, participated. We even had some family guests join in. The whole team had so much fun taking an afternoon to create with each other.
Shibori techniques date back to 8th century Japan, and its popularity still holds solid ground today and for good reason. It's a method that produces simple, but beautifully calming designs, an aesthetic we really try to reflect in our own custom books at Blue Sky Papers.
Our team is always researching new ways to bring beautiful product ideas to the table without sacrificing our reputation for simplicity and timeless designs, and we really love how Shibori is helping to strengthen that philosophy.
It’s only a matter of time before we’ll be bringing Shibori to our collection of album and journal designs, but for now, you can check out our team’s experimental results below:
Jessie first learned about Shibori at school, and is now showing and teaching the rest of our team how she achieves these beautiful, indigo patterns.
At the start of the workshop, Jessie demonstrated the necessary tools and ingredients. If attempting to DIY shibori at home, make sure you pre-wash your fabric in hot water with detergent. Jessie recommends using Synthrapol, a generic, but professional, textile detergent.
Afterwards, let your fabric dry, and then once you've applied one of the Shibori-style binding variations to your fabric, pre-soak it in a soda ash solution for 15 minutes.
A lot of online tutorials leave the pre-wash step out, and Jessie says you can tell when shibori designs haven't been pre-washed as the dye doesn't take to the fabric as well.
Clamps, rubber bands and mini vices helped hold complicated and experimental folds together while we applied the dye to our fabric.
Everyone, from customer service to shipping, participated. We even had some family guests join in. The whole team had so much fun taking an afternoon to create with each other.
Shibori techniques date back to 8th century Japan, and its popularity still holds solid ground today and for good reason. It's a method that produces simple, but beautifully calming designs, an aesthetic we really try to reflect in our own custom books at Blue Sky Papers.
Our team is always researching new ways to bring beautiful product ideas to the table without sacrificing our reputation for simplicity and timeless designs, and we really love how Shibori is helping to strengthen that philosophy.
It’s only a matter of time before we’ll be bringing Shibori to our collection of album and journal designs, but for now, you can check out our team’s experimental results below:
We can't wait to turn these into photo albums and journals!
Aug 11th 2014
