I had the opportunity to have my scarves photographed by my friend Joanne. We decided to use a beautiful wooden desk. The scarves are draped to beautifully show off the change in colours and the shibori designs.
I hope you enjoyed viewing the gallery of scarves. Some of these scarves have already sold!
On Saturday Sept. 23, 2017 I will have a selection of hand dyed items including scarves at the Community Centre 55 annual Fall Festival. The festival is from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Kimberely Public School, 50 Swanwick Ave., Toronto, ON.
Come out to support the centre, begin your Christmas shopping, and enjoy the afternoon with your family. See you there!
Summer is a time for enjoying the outdoors. This Labour Day weekend spend time at the new Trillium Park at Ontario Place. I will be displaying my hand dyed original scarves along with 30 other vendors at the Urban Market. This event coincides with the 150th Anniversary Festival at Ontario Place.
While I was on my trip to Verona, Italy this spring, I purchased some beautiful, soft cotton gauze. I knew this would be perfect for dyeing some lightweight spring and summer scarves.
Each scarf is individually dyed with Procion MX dyes. I challenged myself to create some softer more pastel colours and am happy with the combination of the turquoise and amethyst.
Of course, I also dyed a few in more intense colours! This central portion of this scarf was gathered onto a narrow pipe where the purple and blue was placed, leaving the edges free.
I love using the same colour in different intensities. This cotton gauze scarf was first dyed in a pale pink and overdyed in a burgundy.
All of the scarves a generous 18 x 80 inches or 45 x 200 cm. They have raw fringed edges and are machine washable.They can be left to dry for the soft crinkly look you see in the photos. Of course, they can also be ironed for a more crisp effect. All of my Italian cotton gauze scarves are available for $40.00 each.
I have been on a fabric dyeing binge since I took an Indigo dyeing workshop in May. I have been obsessed with creating patterns, colour and texture with Indigo and fibre reactive dyes. The fabrics I dyed in September are now stitched up into the pillows below.
I will be bringing these indigo pillows, Shibori scarves in wool, silk and cotton and selection of quilted art postcards to the Yorkshire Rose Quilters’ Guild of Toronto Festive Marketplace next week. Come and see the results of my Indigo obsession for yourself!
I found some very lightweight wool scarves that I experimented dyeing using fiber reactive dyes and Shibori techniques. I was very hesitant working with wool, but the results were beautiful! The scarf below is a very rich coral colour. It was rolled around a string, pulled tightly, immersed in the dye solution and steamed.
Coral wool scarf Kumo Shibori
Working with wool resulted in a shopping trip to a charity shop to buy a pot that I could use to actually steam the scarf. Luckily, I found an enamel pot with steamer insert and lid – perfect for my needs. Once you have used an item to dye, you can no longer use it in your kitchen. After making certain my family was aware that the new pot was off limits, I began having fun.
Coral wool scarf Kumo Shibori
My fear working with wool was that I would shrink and felt the scarf, but by slowly heating and then cooling the scarf completely before washing the dye out, there was no problem.
Blue wool scarf Itajime Shibori
You can see how fine the wool is in the photo above. The pattern shows through the undyed portions. I was also surprised at how little dye washed out of the scarves. The wool absorbs the dyes beautifully.
Blue wool scarf Itajime Shibori
The wool scarves have a lovely soft hand and are just right under a coat, and lightweight enough to use inside as a fashion accessory. I have another scarf to dye and can’t decide on the colour. What’s your favorite colour?
I have so many more ideas for dyeing that I am back to it!
Creamsicle cotton gauze scarf
This beautiful orange Arashi Shibori or pole wrapped piece unwrapped into a beautiful cream and orange scarf. It reminded my husband of a favourite childhood ice cream treat – the Creamsicle!
Creamsicle cotton gauze scarf unwrapped
Here it is partially unwrapped, once washed it is a softer colour.
Radicchio 2 cotton gauze scarf
I was asked to make a scarf similar to the Arashi Shibori scarf in raspberry that I wrote about in July. I didn’t keep track of the colours I mixed to create that shade and was challenged to recreate the colour.
They aren’t exactly the same, but very similar. When I first unwrapped the raspberry coloured scarf, washed and dried it, the colour and veining reminded me of radicchio. Radicchio is a beautiful Italian chicory lettuce that grows in a tightly wrapped ball. The leaf is a purpley red while the veins are white. Next time you are at the grocery store look for it – the colour is gorgeous.
I am also dyeing scarves in a silk/cotton blend and a linen/rayon blend. I’ll have more photographs of those scarves as well as some velvet that I’ll be making into pillows.
I’ve been having fun hand dyeing scarves. They are made out of 100% cotton gauze and are available in two sizes.
Itajime Shibori gold
I’ve folded, clamped, stitched, wrapped, scrunched, and twisted to make a variety of designs.
Itajime Shibori blue
Can you guess what I used as the resist in the above photo?
Itajime Shibori turquoise
This turquoise scarf was folded and loosely coiled. The dye was poured into the bottom of the container first and then the dry scarf was added. The dye was completely absorbed by the scarf to create a beautiful ombre stripe.
hand dyed serviette fuschia
I also dyed a few linen napkins that I purchased at auction. I added them to the inside of the tubes I wrapped and the bottom of a couple of containers while I was dyeing the scarves. They have a lovely mottled look.
Kumo Shibori green
This green bundle was loosely rolled around a string, pulled tightly and tied. This creates a texture similar to snake-skin.
Kumo and Nui Shibori pink
The scarf on the right was ombre dyed as well as the being stitched and gathered to create a border effect. The scarf on the left was tightly twisted and dyed with two colours, yellow and red.
Nui shibori purple
A mauve scarf was stitched, gathered and then dip dyed in a blue dye bath.
Arashi Shibori purple and raspberry
These two scarves are pole wrapped: Arashi shibori. They have both been dyed with the same colour of dye. The difference is that the bottom scarf was white and the top scarf had been dyed with a light turquoise.
Arashi Shibori purple
This is the turquoise with purple dye being unwrapped. The colours are gorgeous!
Arashi Shibori raspberry
This is the scarf that was white. Dyeing is a fun process, you never really know how the finished results will look. To see what these scarves and others I’ve made will look like you’ll have to come to Quilts at the Creek Saturday July 18th and Sunday July 19th, 2015. I will have a selection of these hand dyed scarves, hand dyed quilting cottons, table runners and baby quilts for sale at the Shop ‘Round the Corner located in the Pioneer Patio, left just as you enter the park. Hope to see you there. I’ll be in the shop Sunday afternoon stop by and say hello!
