Kanoko Shibori

I am trying to create a version of kanoko shibori for a possible commission.

I am quite sure that I read somewhere that the term kanoko refers to the spots found on deer… perhaps someone out there in blogland can tell me if that is true or if it is a figment of my imagination.
I haven’t done this type of shibori in a long time mostly because it is so labor intensive. Although it is traditional to use thread binding I am using those teensy rubber bands used on braces. Frankly as cheats go I’m quite sure that this one doesn’t give me much advantage time-wise. Anyone who really knows how to do this could lap me really easily! The only way someone can be fast at this is practice, and lots of it. However the rubber bands do give me a very clear resist and I’m less than confident in my ability to create that with thread.
So off to the races…
Working on cotton sateen I marked the fabric with a 1.5 inch grid.

Then I pulled up very small pinches of fabric at each of the marks and bound it with a rubber band, this is a bit harder than it sounds and one of those activities that make you wish your fingers were much thinner (like Eubie Blake thin)

I really love the way it looks bound up

Having bound it dry, I wet out the fabric (very carefully, those little bands can pop off real easy) and plunked it into an activated dye solution, saying a little prayer to the Dye Gods in the hopes that those teensy little bits of rubber would actually do the trick.

The results are good!

I’ve looked through my reference and this seems to most resemble yokobiki kanoko shibori: Square ring dots on a dark ground.
I like the results and popping all those bitty rubber bands off of the fabric when I washed it was really fun… It seems that dots are all around these days!