The last two weeks I've been submerged into the Indigo Shibori and Origami world.
Shibori is a technique with many steps. The first step in the process of Indigo Shibori is to fold the fabric, sometimes using the Origami technique. The second step is to prepare a vat of Indigo mixing very carefully the ingredients and then, submerge very slowly the fabrics into the indigo vat. After a few minutes, it's time to remove the fabrics from the vat, wait for the oxidation process to be completed and, voila!. It's the magic moment to enjoy the awesome reveal of infinite varieties of patterns and indigo tones in each of the fabrics.
The process includes washing the fabrics many times. Even though I was wearing gloves I ended up with my fingers stain cutting tons of rubber bands and treads, that I used to keep the fabric folded. When the fabrics were dried and iron, I sewed into kitchen towels, tea towels, and pillows cases.
People keep asking me if I do all the job by myself. Yes! I do every step of the process, it's a very artisanal work and time-consuming, but at the same time extraordinarily rewarding. Also, I proudly have to say, that almost everything you can find on my web page, www.shogozenart.com, is done by myself.
For those who do not know, Shibori is the Japanese technique of dye that has been around for centuries. Shibori is the art of arranging and manipulating fabrics to create patterns and shapes.
While Indigo is a color very similar to blue that is obtained from a plant, Indigofera Tinctoria.
Bellow, the picture shows the fabrics folded ready to be submerged into the indigo vat and next, the fabric in the process of oxidating, changing from the green color into the rich indigo color.
Hope you find this process interesting, although is a very ancient Japanese technique it is coming back in a very strong fashionable way.
Enjoy!
Para la version en español : https://exploradorazen.blogspot.com/
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