Ne-maki Shibori

Another simple shibori tie is ne-maki.  For this you need something roundish - marbles, pebbles, ...

As with kumo, I like to do this tie with artificial sinew.  The waxy coating helps keep the thread tight, and you want tight thread so it acts as a resist and keeps the indigo from touching that part of the cloth.

First, cover a marble with your cloth and pinch the fabric underneath it.

Wrap the artificial sinew very, very tightly just underneath the marble.  Really pull hard!

You can either tie a knot and trim the ends ....

... or you can go to the next marble without tying, wrap it tightly, go to the next marble, etc. ...

... and then tie the end when you finish the final marble.  Some fabric holds the waxed artificial sinew well even without knots - this makes it much,  much easier (and quicker) to remove the sinew after dying.  Some fabric, like silk, doesn't seem to hold it well for me, so I end up tying each marble in separately.  And cutting each marble's sinew off separately!

When I use pebbles, I tie each one off separately.  They don't seem to hold otherwise.

Here's the finished sampler ready to dye ... hmmm.  Looks like someone's cat has been sleeping on my photo background again!

And just out of the dye vat.

I let most of the dye drain off in a pan and then take the sinew off so air can get to all parts of the cloth.  The circles on the bottom are from the marbles and those on top are from the pebbles.

It's fun to combine methods!

You might've noticed that my sample piece dyed a little lighter and greyer than normal.  And you might think that means the indigo is being used up - probably not at this point.  When this happens it might mean you need to refresh the vat with more reducing agents.  

This is what my indigo vat currently looks like.  Not good!  Normally I check this each time before I dye, but I got lazy this time since I was just dying a sample.  The blue-green color tells me it's time for more reducer.  I added a tablespoon more thiox and 1 1/2 tablespoons of soda ash (dissolve the soda ash in a little water first), stirred it up, covered it, and came back in a couple of hours.  

Now my vat is more of the yellow-green I want to see.  It actually could be a little more yellow.  That means using a little more of the thiox and soda ash - and I'll do that before I dye my next pieces.






I was also busy this week making matching shibori shirts for little c and me - yes, I am a very dorky Nana!

See this previous post for beginning indigo dying.

Happy Creating!  Deborah