Blue Trials

I have often experienced frustration when dyeing shibori because even after binding the resist until my eyes pop out of my head when the dye is applied it seems to ignore that there is a resist at all and blast its way through leaving very little evidence of my work. I have fought this problem by manipulating the application methods (judicious application, thickening the dyes etc)It was suggested to me by jaja that wetting out the fabric prior to dyeing could help to tighten the resist thus creating the effect I'm after. I tried it with these discharge pieces and it seemed to help but I wanted to see if the method would really help with the Procion dyes. I did a little experiment to compare methods

Each of these three were done on the same fabric, same size area resisted and dyed in the same dye bath

this one bound dry and put into the dye bath dry

this one was bound dry, wet out, and put into the dye bath

and this one was wet out, bound, then dyed (still damp)

You can see a tremendous difference in the result. It makes me wonder how it is that I didn't know this before and very grateful that I know it now!