Coral and Rose Hand-painted Silk Scarf Using a Shibori Technique

The completed silk scarf

     This hand-painted silk scarf was an experiment using a technique derived from traditional Japanese shibori silk dyeing methods. For the 60" x 11" silk scarf, I chose three dye colors, an orange-toned coral, a mix of coral and yellow, and rose. 

     To make this design, I accordion-folded and ironed the blank white scarf lengthwise in 6ths and then folded it back and forth in triangles somewhat like the ceremonial folding of a flag, ironing the folds as I worked. I used wooden clothespins to clip the three corners and hold the folds in place. The exact directions (with diagrams) are in Fabric Surface Design by Cheryl Rezendes (from our wonderful public library). In a previous post, I showed you a scarf made by twisting before dyeing, the idea taken from the same book.

When scarf is first unfolded

Center section-vertical folds only

     Only the ends of the scarf were folded, which was not my plan, but happened because folding the entire scarf would have made too thick a bundle to handle. I knew that leaving a section in the middle simply accordion-folded would also create a nice effect and would give the scarf some variety. 

     Also an accident (this was my very first effort at a folding technique, after all) was the different color saturation of the two ends of the scarf. After making and clipping the flag folds, I set one edge of the folded triangle in a flat dish with about 1/4" of dye in it (as the book directed). It all promptly fell over, soaking that part in coral dye. I quickly pulled it out and used a brush to soak each of two sides of that triangle with each of my other colors (on top of the unwanted extra coral). On the other end, I just saturated the three edges, each with one of the three colors (no dish of dye=no danger of the bundle taking an unintended swim).

The end that "took a bath" in coral dye

The second end completed--brushed on color only

    Finally, I brushed a generous amount of dye on the edge of each long strip in the center section and let the whole thing dry for a couple of days. 

     I enjoyed this experiment and will be better prepared to make a future scarf using the flag fold technique--perhaps one with only 4 lengthwise folds and with different colors.

Question of the day: What recent creative experiment have you enjoyed?