Yin & Yang

Ah yes, a new Blogger posting format...just when I got really comfortable with the last one!

I finished off two batches of shibori today -- one turned out magnificently, the other rather stunk!  Hence the title Yin & Yang.  These are the best pieces and pics.  They're all from the teal batch, except for the circles piece, which is one of only two pieces that I liked from the olive batch.  The other pieces in that batch I discharged and will dye again.

Just above, this is a little square piece of cotton that I folded into the center, flipped over and folded again several times -- like one of those paper finger things we used to make as kids.  I really liked the way this turned out, will definitely try again.

Old linen hankie with hand stitched mokume shibori.

Heavy cotton/rayon with little rocks put in all over, bundled and tied individually.

I'm happier with this piece of fabric than anything else I've ever dyed!  It's half of an old linen damask tablecloth, shiboried on a pole.

An old linen hankie, wrapped and scrunched down on a pole, then overtied with heavy thread.

My primary experiment with these two batches was to use dye colors that I mixed myself from primaries, and then leave the batches overnight so that the colors would separate to whatever degree they would.  The photo above is everything from the teal batch.  The most color separation in this batch occurred in the raw silk piece, the fourth from the bottom which shows some of the yellow in the color, and the muslin pieces on top show more of the small amount of fuchsia in the mix.

The olive batch didn't work very well although there was a wide range of color variation.  Below are the two good pieces from this batch -- the circles piece from above, plus a pole wrapped piece with pleats wrapped in.  This last piece is handwoven of silk and linen.  Lots of color separation here.

So, all in two days work!