many of my pieces are about fabric. i think sometimes it may just be the fabric that makes them stand out as unique. i have collected fabric all my life, it has always been part of my dreams. a few years ago i was introduced to shibori through blogging. since then i have used it here and there (i have a shibori category here and over at what if) with other fabrics to add interest to the mix.
....of course i did a bit of dabbling, thinking that i might dye some myself. but the truth is, you can't do everything. sometimes that approach will just dilute your creative potency. i have decided instead to encourage the use of shibori in quilting. to experiment more and show you how i might find ways to make my work more exciting by including it. what if we encourage all those who do it so well to focus more on providing this community with more to work with?... perhaps to adjust the fabrics to be more suitable, to merchandise their leftovers or mistakes into scrap bags. encourage them to dye with quilters in mind.
i have listed a few shibori links among my new sidebar category for hand dyes that i am using in my work. i hope to add more. glennis asked a few good questions the other day. one of my answers was that it might be the social responsibility of an artist to teach or share with others what they learn in the process. another might be to support other artists so they can do the same.
the piece pictured above was recently purchased from susan fennell. it is quite nice because the fabric has a muslin construction. a lot of shibori , like batik, is dyed on tightly woven fabric. i guess you get a sharper result but it is hard to get a needle through it.i would love to see more done on softer fabrics.
on the lighter side....a new free pieced wild thing with a silk shibori mane...in process, outdoors because the sun is shining, its saturday and i love shibori.