Sekka shibori

Sekka shibori fabrics. Sekka kimono. As part of a textile study tour, our group visited a true rara avis of Japan - the last remaining studio producing traditional sekka-style shibori fabric. First, have you ever made paper snowflakes? The process involves folding paper, snipping into the folds, and then carefully opening up the paper to reveal a lacey and almost magically symmetrical snowflake. My children and I used to decorate our dining room windows with these every winter. The paper…

Finnfactor design: Linen Baby Wrap Sekka Shibori Dye: Part 1 snowflake or sekka shibori DIY

I have just put these lovely pieces of sekka shibori on my website here. Sekka means snow flowers and refers both to the dynamic designs and the technique for creating them. Sekka is an itajime clamp style of shibori (explanation below). They're dyed in a vibrant indigo on a very soft white cotton. This fabric was often used for nappies (diapers) and this first piece is still stitched in a loop in the style of a traditional Japanese nappy. The full loop measures 34cm x 125cm - the photo…

Last week I tutored a day-course in shibori techniques at Ardington School of Crafts. Ardington is a village on the edge of the Berkshire Downs. The venue is housed in a Victorian school, and its l…

This is the second half of my Sekka Shibori experiment. The first half, which covers the basics and folding can be read here. This is where...

Sekka shibori tutorial by Finnfactor Design

This is the second half of my Sekka Shibori experiment. The first half, which covers the basics and folding can be read here. This is where we left off: a stack of folded linen. Trying to figure out dyeing was challenging since I could not find a tutorial. In my last post I showed how I figured how to apply the dye to get the pattern you want. Here is that picture again: And based on that, this was what I thought I'd try to attempt. I figured why not toss two colors in there just to see what…

shibori