Shibori is Japanese for an ancient technique which manipulates textiles.  The word comes from the verb root - to wring, squeeze, to press.  Using the shibori process, the fabric's surface is given a three dimensional look helped on by the folding, crumpling, stitching, pleating and|or twisting it receives before the bound material is placed in a vat of dye and heated to a high temperature. 
And - it's NOT tie dye!!!!!!!!!!  =)

Stitching the fabric into designs and patterns is pretty kewl but quite time consuming... I thought I'd just pleat the silk into rows that run lengthwise with the selvage. [The finished edges of all woven fabrics are called the selvage.  It helps the fabric remain intact and prevents unraveling.] I use a 20 thread count|cotton twine with a bit of polyester.  I know!  I know!  A synthetic!  Yuck!  But in this case the poly stops the dye from penetrating the cotton twine so the outline remains sharp and true.

While I prepare the dye bath, I soak the bound silk in warm h20. This helps with dye colour and flow while gently easing the silk towards a higher temperature.





The powder MX colour series works well with high temperature immersion.  I mixed 1tsp navy + 1tsp brilliant yellow + 1T basic blue into a paste and diluted it with 1/4cup warm h20.  Setting that aside to dissolve, I filled my vat with about 3gallons of warm h20 and added 3T calgon to cut the edge.  In goes the dye and since I'm going for a pale colour, I added 6T salt and stirred really really really well to dissolve the crystals. 
[Salt may eat silk fibers but it also help dye set. A necessary evil.]
In the image above, the dark green on the far left hand side of the page is the concentrated dye colour.  Once added to the bath, the shade turns more pale and watery blue.

I wring as much h20 out of the soaking fabric as I can and add the bundles to the pot.......

Bringing the temperature up to 140F, I hold it there for 45mins.



This is the bound silk at the 45min mark.  I diluted 1T soda ash [helps set the colour fast] in a bit of hot h20 and added it to the pot, stirring well as this also will eat the fabric upon contact. Another 45mins to go....


Once the dyeing is complete I gently water the silk back to a normal temperature.  After letting this sit for several hours, I begin the task of unwinding the twine.  For this, my scissors have a blunt nose as a wrong snip here or there puts holes in the fabric rendering it useless for anything but constructions.

The nice thing about shibori is the suede hand it gives a china silk.  It also presses in permanent creases giving the silk a dimensional look.
 













The shibori came out realy very pale.  I could've gone heavier on the formula.  If you look closely at the 2 detail images above, you can see a hint of the shibori.... almost like the imprint of a snake skin crawling across the silk.  You can also grasp the dimension aided on by the creases. Both of the pieces have been ironed flat with steam|high heat.