The art of shibori handcraft inspiration BACK TO INDEX Harrogate, November 2002 Philippa Watkins, WGSN 08.07.03 The future of textiles is assumed to lie with high-tech innovation, but What is shibori? a more low-tech, hands-on creativity is also gaining prominence, influencing the creative production of textiles. The International • Shibori is the Shibori Symposium demonstrated how inspirational handcrafted Japanese word for techniques can be. dozens of methods, including folding, stitching and clamping, which shape and secure cloth before dyeing. The root of the word literally means “to wring, twist, and press”. • It describes shaped, resist dyeing - a process of manipulating cloth that, when dyed, leaves the reserved areas recorded as patterns or three- Pleated silks created through shibori techniques by Genevieve Dion dimensional shapes. • A characteristic of Creative skills are vital to the textile industry and its future. New fibres and shibori resist is the soft finishes are often the results of high-tech skills. blurred edge to the pattern. There is always However, other, low-tech, more hands-on creative skills are also playing an an element of chance important role. Note the popularity of embroidery and fabric manipulation in and the unexpected, with recent years, particularly in accessories - demonstrating a strong hundreds of miniscule consumer demand for products with a difference. accidents that can make up the pattern. In truth, technology and craft skills can benefit each other. While many looks can be produced by automation, the inspiration to develop the Shibori Symposium machinery comes from the craft skills. November 21-22 2002 Harrogate, England Conversely, new synthetic fibres and finishes, with different characteristics and properties, become the raw materials for artists to explore - which in • Staged beside the turn feeds back into industrial production. Knitting and Stitching Show, this was the first A prime example of this event in Europe. process in action is the pleating, crushing and Artists taking part in sculpting of polyester the symposium: fabrics – mastered so beautifully in Issey Jenny Balfour-Paul, UK Miyake’s collections – MargaretBarnet, Australia which, because they are Caroline Bartlet, UK in polyester, are truly Patricia Black, Italy permanent. Karen K. Brito, US Marian Blayden, US Genevieve Dion, Canada Here is a marriage Yukiko Echigo, Japan between the high-tech Catherine Ellis, US and the hands-on, Yoshiko Wada Michelle Griffiths, UK building on the Marie-Helen Guelton, knowledge and skills of manual crafts. France Ana Lisa Hedstrom, US Kaei Hayakawa, Japan Mie Iwatsubo, Japan Trine Mauritz-Eriksen, Norway Joan Morris, US This mutual process can be seen working well in Japan, where a strong Kaei Hayakawa, Japan tradition of skilled craftsmanship has a significant impact on the fashion Mie Iwatsubo, Japan industry, particularly in the development of fabrics. Japanese designers are Trine Mauritz-Eriksen, producing some of the most exciting advances in the creative manipulation Norway of textiles, thanks to the application of ancient crafts to modern materials. Joan Morris, US Aditi Ranjan, India Shibori Jay Rich, US Karen Urbanek, US Shibori practitioners in particular are providing a real dynamism in textile Yoshiko Wada, US design. Judith Whyte, Nigeria The Symposium was The Shibori Symposium is an example of how craft skills can proliferate sponsored by Creative and inspire the design community. Held in Harrogate, UK, this was the first Exhibitions Ltd ever event in Europe (following previous events held in Japan, India and (organizers of the Knitting Chile). and Stitching Show), and the World Shibori The two-day event, with presentations and workshops by international Network (WSN) shibori artists and designers, finished with an Art to Wear fashion show. Distinctly theatrical, the show was bright, colourful and eye-catching, with clothes that would certainly make an impact and are fun to wear. More information on Shibori: World Shibori Network www.shibori.org Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now By Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada Published in 2002 by Kodansha International Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Wada, Rice and Barton Published by Kodansha International Limited. Yoshiko Wada, who spearheads the Shibori Symposium, is also a driving force behind the growing worldwide shibori movement. It was Wada, spanning east and west, who first introduced Asian textile resist techniques into the US some time ago (which have since spread internationally) through her books, exhibitions and lectures. Serenely diminutive, with a quiet but positive enthusiasm, Wada has also done much to encourage the research into new ways of applying this ancient art using modern materials and dyes. Shibori is the Japanese word for a wide variety of methods, including folding, stitching and clamping to resist the dye, shaping and securing cloth before dyeing. There is no single English word that covers the multitude of shibori effects and techniques. The root of the word literally means “to wring, twist, and press”, explains Wada in her book Memory On Cloth. It describes “shaped, resist dyeing”, a process of manipulating cloth that, when dyed, leaves the reserved areas recorded as patterns or three-dimensional shapes. The fabric is given a three-dimensional form by the folding, crumpling, stitching, plaiting or twisting, rather than being only two-dimensional. The memory of the shape it is tied or stitched into is thus recorded in the cloth. Genevieve Dion There is a strong emphasis on the process itself that, together with the raw materials, creates the effects, which cannot be exactly repeated. A characteristic of shibori resist is the soft blurred edge to the pattern, an effect that is quite different to a drawn pattern. The dyer working with the raw materials allows the materials to find their own expression rather than forcing it. And an element of the unexpected is always there – chance and hundreds of miniscule accidents can bring a special magic. But crucially today, the techniques to create these absolutely individual patterns can be created through automation, without manual intervention, bringing them into the world of production. Polyester is probably the most important modern fibre for creative treatment. Its ability to shrink when heat is applied is the essential factor for creativity - a quality that can be used to build dimensional effects and textures in a fabric. Mie Iwatsubo Many designers include polyester in their collections because of its versatility. Polyester raw material can be made into any shape of fibre to form any number of variations in the final fabric. Transparent, fragile looking fabrics can be strong and durable, flexible, light-reflective, heat- retaining - and much else. Blends create new looks and textures, each fibre imparting different properties to the final fabric. Microfibres have made them lighter and more breathable. Synthetic fibres and fabrics have come a long way since the days when they were seen as cheap substitutes for natural fibres. Many of the less pleasant qualities experienced in wearing synthetics have been eliminated, making them much more comfortable to wear and easier to care for. The electro-static problem is controllable – in Issey Miyake’s fabrics, for example, by the addition of minute amounts of metal woven into the fabric. Mie Iwatsubo Shibori artists and designers • Among the artists demonstrating their craft at the symposium, Genevieve Dion from Canada showed how she transforms Gunma silk (woven in the Gunma district of Japan) into the most delicate yet robust, fluid pleated fabrics, with a natural elasticity. Woven from high-twist S and Z twisted silk filaments, the still-gummed silk is shaped using a variety of stitch resist techniques, so that the effects will be created when degumming takes place. The degumming causes the fabric to shrink because of its over spun nature. In unprotected areas, permanent pleating occurs, while the remaining stitch resisted and protected areas become textured. Using a number of techniques gives different results. For instance creating horizontal pleats across vertical pleats, forces the long pleats to flare. • Mie Iwatsubo from Japan mixes traditional with contemporary techniques, knitting wool and silk, which she felts using stitch techniques. Knitting in eyelet stitch patterns, the fabrics naturally pleat when dyed and felted. These are made into a range of distinctive accessories, scarves and bags. Kaei Hayakawa • Kaei Hayakawa, leader of the Shibori Community in Japan and founding member of the World Shibori Network, utilises the shibori process in a range of products, from clothing (working with fashion designers including Yohji Yamamoto and Hiroko Koshino) to solid, hard sculpture. member of the World Shibori Network, utilises the shibori process in a range of products, from clothing (working with fashion designers including Yohji Yamamoto and Hiroko Koshino) to solid, hard sculpture. His more recent work involved exploration of shibori artistry in the larger environment, translating shibori techniques on fabric into more rigid materials, glass, aluminium and even concrete. Examples in concrete can be seen in the architectural installations at the railway station in Arimatsu, Nagoya, Japan. • Catherine Ellis from the US has developed a method of weaving the stitching threads into the cloth, which are drawn up before dyeing, to produce the intricate patterns. With a cotton or wool warp and polyester weft, the resulting pleated patterns are permanent. She also uses felt resist paste (sodium alginate) so that only the unprotected parts will felt when washed or dyed, creating differential tension to create 3-D effects in the fabric. • Yukiko Echigo is an extraordinarily inventive engineer and a perfectionist. Using traditional origami techniques, she stitches into the fabric and dyes in indigo, harnessing the natural force of oxidisation in indigo dyeing to produce her extraordinary patterns on cotton. Yukiko Echigo.