I have been working on the Maki Age Shibori challenge on Flickr and it has been a lesson in staying flexible when things do not go as planned. Entwinements has a lot of info on the process and definition of Maki Age here, so I won't go into long explanations...
I decided to try a discharge process on some mystery fabrics I've had around forever, I have no idea what the fiber content of this stuff is but it is definitely not found in nature. Often black polyester can be discharged (bleached) and it will turn a nice golden color, if that happened I thought that it would sit nicely next to the pale golden beige and I could try piecing the two treated fabrics together, good idea no?
No.
I don't know what is in this black fabric but full strength bleach makes NO impact on it whatsoever, The beige discharges nicely but the black is exactly as it started, except wrinkled.
(Here is where flexibility comes into play)
The wrinkles are really neat looking...Tinctory does wonderful heat-set Shibori Poly jewelry...I wonder if I could heat-set those shapes?
Next test: tie up some shapes and run 'em through the microwave when they are damp.
Cool! it works! Umm... now what?
Can my original design concept use the sculptural shapes, rather than the bold graphics?
This is as far as I've gotten so far. I have created the fabrics and I now I'm going to see if they can't be used in something based on my preconceived ideas. 
i just had a similar experience! i grabbed the wrong piece of black fabric to do another maki-age sample and after all the stitching and binding i realized it wasn't discharging as expected. totally confused, i retraced my steps and realized i had used the wrong fabric! darn...guess i'll heat set the texture since i can't think of anything else to do with it...
ReplyDeleteBTW- just ordered a set of your beetle cards...can't wait to get them!
Hi Glennis!
ReplyDeleteI sent off the cards to you today along with a little extra something that I think you will like! Good luck with the heat setting... I cooked mine for about 5 minutes in the microwave tightly packed in a glass jar with some water so they wouldnt burn. It seemed to work rather well even if it isn't the most traditional method (instant gratification takes too long!)