The story of woven shibori

 Woven shibori is a technique that is relatively new to handweavers.  My first experiences were with Catharine Ellis and her book which showed me how to open a whole  new experience with my handwoven cloth.  The photo above is a piece of plain weave that came off the loom in a pale green.  Very mundane and not at all interesting.  What made it different was that I had woven pulling threads now and again in an interesting pattern.  Once my piece was off the loom, I pulled these threads very tightly and fastened them with knots at the selvedges of the scarf.  (Enlarge the photo so you can see the details.)

 The photo above would have been more instructive if I had shown this piece before I had painted it with fiber  reactive dyes.  But I didn't start my photo graphic study until after that had taken place. In the photo below is just how ugly it looked at this point in the finishing processes.

 

 

Sometimes, ugly ducklings do grow up to be elegant adults.  The finished cloth has a whole realm of color combinations in a series of elongated diamonds that don't repeat anywhere in the cloth.  The finished cloth is always lightly textured.  This texture can be pressed out, but I prefer to leave some of the ridges and valleys present

 

 

 

See a previous post on this blog about woven shibori for additional information