Update on Pole wrap experiments

I re-wrapped one of the tanks I posted about last night, and overdyed to see if I could get a better image on the back. Here are pix of the result:

If you compare these to the pictures from last night's post, you won't see too much of a difference on the front, but the back has a much more distinct design, particularly on the right side of the back. I'm pleased that I was able to add more design, but I think my next experiment is going to be using either a bucket or a large circular trash can to try and avoid the overlapping fabric. I know there is a way to do this! I'll keep you posted...

Pole Wrap shibori

For several years, I have been trying to use the pole wrap method of shibori to create designs on my clothing items. It is a challenge to wrap a shirt or tank around a pole, wrap with twine or sinew, and 'scrunch' the garment down to create ridges in a manner that creates a striped design. I have seen examples where people use large sewer piping and fabric, and the designs are beautiful. But trying to replicate the look on a shirt using a smaller diameter pipe has not netted the results I have been trying for. But recently, I have begun to try again, making adjustments to how I position the shirt or tank, how I wrap with the twine or sinew, and how I apply the dyes. Today, I got some interesting results, at least on part of the garments:

The pink/dark one is a little different than what I usually get because I folded it down the middle, matching the armholes, in order to get a 'mirror' image.
Here are the backs:

The pink/dark came out weird because part of the back was covered over and the dark dye didn't penetrate. It's not so bad on the black/camel, but notice that there is like a 'ghost' image of the armhole and strap on the right side of the image.

I am in the process of overdyeing the pink/dark, wrapped to expose the under-dyed area, so I will post an update tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Market Phair

Yesterday, I set up my booth at a small parking lot venue downtown, to see if I could shrink my massive tie-dye inventory a little. There were about 8 vendors there, and we were taking advantage of the foot traffic from the local Farmers' Market. There was a music festival going on at Heritage Square in the afternoon as well.

Here is my booth:

As you can tell by the position of the clothes, the wind was doing it's thing, but I had weights to hold the canopy down. Don't know if you can see it, but there is a pink plastic bag at the base of the clothing rack. When I went to put the rack together, I discovered that one of the castors was missing! Found it later in the garage. Then, when I put up the canopy, I discovered that one of the plastic connectors on the top had broken, but later found some duck tape in my supply bin, so I used it to hold the cross-piece in place. Then.... THEN, my almost new folding chair broke! Luckily, we were set up in the parking lot of a restaurant that has some patio furniture set up outside, so I was able to borrow one of their chairs, or I would have been standing all day... too much!


Here are pix of a couple of gals who came by and 'Hoop Danced' using hula hoops, while a young man was beating a drum... very cute!

The gal on the right was really into this... next time I need to figure out how to use my video on my camera!
Well, after a slow morning, things picked up and by the time we broke down at 3pm, I had more than made rent, and plan to do it again July 5th.... shades of yesteryear!

Missing in action?

I have been a real piker lately when it comes to posting here... needless to say, I have been in an endless cyclone of activity... nothing new there! But most of it has been filling a wholesale order for my tie-dye biz and beefing up my inventory. This Sunday and July 5th I will be setting up in a new venue downtown, which is hoping to take advantage of the crowds who come in for the Farmers' Market a couple of blocks away. I have put off going to try and wait until the weather warms up, and it is looking good so far for Sunday. Meanwhile, here is a picture of one of my recent shirts:

I liked this one well enough to keep it for myself, but dyed some more for the rack yesterday.

On the fiber arts front, I am working on a project I have wanted to try for a long time - a blue jean purse. The other day I went to our local second hand store and got a cute pair of jeans for 99 cents! Can't beat that! I cut off the legs and removed the back pockets... I'm in the middle of embroidering a stylized heart on one of the pockets, and plan to add flowers to the other -- 'Hearts & Flowers' don't ya know? Then I plan to do some more embellishing on the sides of the purse, line it with some cute fabric I picked up awhile back, and add a strap. Then I still have the legs to play with! Woo-hoo! I'll post pix when I finish it.

What else? Well, I've been working for ages, off and on, on an art quilt that has a lot of beading and hand stitching. It sits for awhile, then I remember I need to get cracking on it and get back to the handwork. I am also starting to work on a tie-dye quilt, which will have a 'sampler' look with dyed squares bordered in hand-dyed fabric. Not sure how big, or even what the overall look will be yet, but I have wanted to do one for a long time, so it's on my list! Funny thing about that list... every time I scratch something off, something(s) gets added on and it continues to grow!

Someday, I need to put my toys aside and do a little on the house, too... like cleaning, window washing, seal the deck (didn't I just do that?), tend to the plants... It never ends, does it?

Livin' in the country...

I looked out my window at about 5:45 this morning, and saw this:

There were about 8 of them, slowly passing by our neighbors' garage two lots down. They took their time, grazing along, then the newspaper lady drove in and they high-tailed it across the road to another property. There they decided to snack on whatever those people have growing in the back yard. What a magnificent sight! Any wonder why I love livin' in the country? Here are some more shots:

The final task...

Yesterday, I got together with Joyce and Evalyn, the other two ladies I worked with on the Golf shoe bag project. We met at Joyce's house to put together 80+ sets of golf shoe bags, tissue covers, eyeglass cases and Evalyn's 'Cool Collars', plus biz cards and collar instructions. What a blast! We had it all done in a little over an hour and it is now ready to be picked up by the client. Here are some pix of the three of us and the bags:

These are some of the bags before we 'stuffed' them.

That's Evalyn on the left, Joyce on the right, and me hiding in the back. Joyce's husband was kind enough to man the camera.

Joyce is playing 'Vanna' here...

Don't we look happy? We are! We're done!

Here are the bins of 'Stuffed' bags, waiting to be picked up.

What I didn't get pix of is the three of us moving down the assembly line and stuffing the bags. We didn't run into each other even once! Way ta go, gals!

Shibori experiment continued

As promised, here is a picture of the stitched shibori shirt I posted about yesterday. The sleeve on the left of the picture and the body of the shirt on the right side are done using the mokume stitch, which resembles woodgrain. Diagonally down the center, I used the karamatsu stitch, which is concentric circles stitched on a fold. The rest of the shirt is scrunched, and I dyed it using low water immersion. Below are some closeup shots:

My impression overall is that combining the patterns made the shirt too busy. However, I do love the individual patterns, and will be continuing to experiment and improve my skills in these methods.