This week I ran into a few problems. The first was the combination of shibori and natural dye. For the dye to really work, the piece of fabric has to be dipped in for quite sometime, 2-3 hours at least) and tie-dye is a quick technique. If it is soaked in for long, the pattern loses its contrast and and looks like a plain piece of fabric. I realized this only after I had dyed my pieces and opened them up. So I ended up with nothing in hand. To fix this- I had 1 unopened piece so I painted on some synthetic dye onto the surface to add some dimension.
Below is a failed attempt- I am mainly using the onion skin and the beetroot dyes so that the colour scheme can remain closer to the previous 2 pieces. And these dyes require time to transfer into the fabric. Since the colour is dull to begin with I cannot use bleach to do a reverse shibori.
Below is a piece that is a mix of natural and synthetic dye. I really love how this one turned out so I took this sample and moulded it into some jewellery pieces.
I am creating jewellery for pulse points. These are some unusual places on the body where jewellery is not traditionally worn so I am quite excited to make this collection. The points that I will working with are- above the ear, inner elbow, ring finger and above the ankle. I will be placing all these pieces on the left side of the body, since pluses are strongest there. To make the fabric hold its shape I have sewed in a piece of wire on its backside. Below are some mockups I created.
The first piece (green) is not dyed. I used pleating that is used in shibori before the piece is dyed. I created it as a backup piece in case everything failed. I think I can just use the shibori sewing/folding techniques and not dye it..? The other two are from the sample created before. I like the way it is coming together but I have to work a little more to make all the four pieces cohesive.
Below are some of my ideas for the ear piece. I want to finalize one design first and then create the other pieces in a similar pattern. The ear piece seemed the most challenging in terms of the placement so I want to clear that out before I move on.
I still have a long road ahead. I believe I will have my final designs by the next week and will start making the final pieces after that. So now I will be creating a lot more mockups and work on improving the designs. Meanwhile I also have to work on getting the frayed edges correct.