Shibori Fabric in many ways

This cloth was dyed to make a Japanese summer kimono called yukata.  I visited his studio in spring, by now I imagine that it is already a yukata being worn by a lady walking on the streets of Kyoto.  

Like I wrote earlier, his main work is kimono-dyeing.  Here are his kimonos and other creations!

This Summer kimono called Yukata dyed by him is in an advert that promotes people to wear it more often in daily life.  It says that you can get discounts at museums, cafes, and on public transportation in Kyoto if you wear Yukata.

He showed me some photos in a Japanese TV guide, where the main actor and the actress are in his dyed fabric.  This is for the Japanese historical Samurai TV drama which is very popular in Japan.  When I saw this, it was like 'Wow!  Is this the person who did the costumes for them!'

This is a sun umbrella which fabric was dyed by him.  It has turquoise polka dots outside and you find fireflies or a planetarium inside.  Very pretty!

Noren, Hand-Dyed Fabric Divider, Itajime Shibori Technique, Made in Kyoto 2

This is the second part of Noren fabric dyeing process.  After it is dyed, the color becomes very durable and resilient to laundry.

After dyeing the base, he takes off the wood binder.  You can see the bound part is not dyed.  He changes the direction of the wood binder to dye the white part.  The tool that he is using, he made himself for this purpose.

All the process is done by hand.

The third round of dyeing.

As you can see, he spends a lot of time with his back bent and it is quite a tiring process.  I do respect his work!

More varieties of his work is coming soon!

Noren, Hand-Dyed Fabric Divider, Itajime Shibori Technique, Made in Kyoto 1

This Noren, divider fabric, is hand-dyed by this 74-year-old Craftsman at his studio in Kyoto.  The method called Ita-Jime is one of the shibori (tie-dye) technique and uses wood to bind the cloth to resist dyeing and make patterns and different colours.  

Here is how it is made. First the cloth is soaked in the colored hot water to make the base color. 

Once the cloth is dyed, the color won't come off even if you wash.  It was blue color in the water but it turned into purple once the the cloth had contact with air!  Can you see slight purple in the cloth??

The cloth is dyed in two different buckets to deepen the color. Yes, each piece of cloth is dyed by his hands.

His color palette.  The color can change depending on the temperature and humidity on the day.  He adjusts the amount of the pigment each time by his long-year experience.

This is just a part of whole process.  Keep your eyes open for the next post!

You can see his completed work here!