Thrifty Art Thursday: Shibori Dying with Tumeric

Last updated on: March 2, 2011 at 6:46 pm by Melissa Hill

Thrifty Art Thursday: Shibori Dying with Tumeric 2011-03-02T18:46:00-04:00 Melissa Hill

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’ve been stuck for a bit now. Artistically, things have not been flowing well for the last few weeks. It’s been hard to get anything done. I don’t know if it’s burnout after my Christmas crafting frenzy, or just because it’s so dark and cold and bleh. Either way, I am done with this self induced artist coma.

Begone boring!

Farewell facebook staring!

It is time to start arting again.

One of my favorite ways to get the creative juices flowing is mess making. I find it to be highly thereputic. So I decided to try out dying fabric with tumeric and alum. It was awesome. For some added interest I tried my hand at shibori stitching as well. I’ve been reading about it online, and I though it was a really cool way to balance the freedom and interest of the more usual tie dying patterns with some structure and more control.

Basically, instead of just tying the fabric, (usually with rubber bands) you use thread to stitch and gather the fabric and use that to resist the dye. I decided to use a scrap of linen that I had originally dyed with beets wrapped around copper (This was a bad idea. Red beets + green copper = a little bit of ugly brown)

Once I was ready to dye I dissolved about half a bottle of Alum (I got mine from Krogers) into a pot of water and soaked it in boiling alum for about 30 minutes. Then I dumped the alum water out (I should have saved it for later) and dumped the bottle of tumeric into a pot of water and brought it to a boil. I dumped my shiboried linen into the pot and stirred.

The yellow was glorious. Mexican yellow, Indian yellow, yellow like dandelions.

I took it out and looked in my pot. There was still lots and lots of yellow in there. So I went and got a silk shirt I had been meaning to reconstruct and stuffed it in my pot. The shirt started out a cream color, but it sucked up that yellow too. It’s a bit darker yellow, and I’m thinking of sewing it up into a bunch of little ruched rows and overdying it with blue to make a green and yellow leaf shirt.

There was still yellow left in my pot.

So I went and got some muslin squares I had cut out in order to print some of my block prints on and another scrap of linen I had rescued from some very ugly pants. I stuffed them in the dye pot too. In a couple of minutes I lifted them up, expecting to see some happy canary yellow but it seemed like the dye was just rolling off my muslin. I though maybe I had exausted the pot of dye, but it still looked very yellow. So I added the last of the alum directly to the pot and Voila! Instant dye uptake. I rinsed everything until the water ran clear and let it dry.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 21, 2011

Continuing to Carve: World Tree

Next Post

March 9, 2011 Surviving the Cold Season

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category animism Cermony and Liturgy Columns Community Dandelion Seeds Health and Wellness History Holidays Magic Nature pagan parenting plant animism Politics Ritual and Practice symbolism and science Theology, Ethics, Philosophy Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 January 2014 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 July 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What message did Jeremiah send to the exiles in Babylon to encourage them?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Return and revolt Build houses and seek the city's good Fast and do not marry Pray for Judah only