Nui Shibori

Another shibori class met at my house a few Saturdays ago. This time we concentrated on mostly stitched resists, which the Japanese call nui. It’s a very time-consuming process, but it’s my favorite to do. The results are stunning. To get the stitching out, you need very sharp little scissors and a lot of patience, or you may cut the fabric.

Stitching and gathering around dowels

Stitching and marbles

Dyed fabric right off the dowels

Another method we tried was folding the fabric in various ways and dipping it in dye. I pre-soaked pieces of fabric in soda ash and salt, so the dye would be permanent. This is a direct dyeing technique and the colors are always very strong.

I did the dipping method many, many years ago with my second graders. We used folded tissue paper and food dyes and they came up with amazing patterns. When you use paper, while it is still wet, you unfold it to dry and – voila – you have the most unusual wrapping paper!