2014 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Workshop Shaped Resist

Joan Morris

$495 includes 80 lab fee

October 31 - November 4, - Class Limit 16

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

This workshop will introduce students to shaped resist dyeing with acid dyes and discharge dyeing. With this technique it is possible to float defined areas of shaped-resist patterns on solid-coloured grounds using vibrant colour schemes. 

Shaped resist dyeing (also referred to as shibori, a Japanese word meaning to compress or to squeeze) is one of the oldest ways of patterning cloth. By pinching, pleating, stitching, wrapping, and folding silk and wool and then securing those shaped bundles before dyeing, students will create textiles that are subtle, evocative visual and textural memories of the shaping process. 

This process readily lends itself to infinite variation and invention. Economical, simple-to-use wash-fast acid dyes give saturated, transparent, vibrant hues to silk and wool, and they work perfectly with the shaped resist processes. 

This class, open to beginners and beyond, will explore shaped resist dyeing using wash-fast acid dyes and the discharge (colour removal) process. Discharging is a colour-removing process allowing for complex colour combinations otherwise impossible to achieve through conventional over-dyeing. We’ll concentrate on making samples of hand-stitched resist (though other ways of making shaped resist will be discussed and demonstrated). 

Feel free to bring your sewing machine. (It isn’t a replacement for hand-sewing, but you can get some wonderful effects with a machine.)

Joan Morris joins us from USA.