Shibori

Shibori is the Japanese art of dyeing cloth. There are many different ways and techniques shibori is used. To sum it up, its rad! Last semester we did a shibori demo, the piece I did had this cool wood grain effect to it. My friend earlier today recommended that I get the book Shibori: The Art of Japanese Dyeing. I've seen it before in one of my textile classes, just looked it up on Amazon. I just might get it!

Here are some Shibori fashions from various designers:

Baby Phat Spring 2009

Shibori Balloon Dress on stylehive.com

Proenza Schouler Shibori Dresses

Diane Von Furstenberg 2008 Dress

Gregory Parkinson 2008

Christian Lacroix 2008

Yoshiki Hishinuma Couture 1996

Mali Mud Cloth

Mali Mud cloth is traditional Malian fabric, hand woven cotton cloth  dyed with mud and plant dyes. My friend brought me back original mud cloth from her visit to Mali, I don't wear it because its an original and I don't want it to get dirty! Lol i should frame my mud cloth soon.

Here is some mud cloth fashion from various designers:

Sass and Bide Fall 2011 Ready to Wear Collection, London Fashion Week

The Chuck Taylor Converse Limited Edition Sneaker...

Celie Fago copper mud cloth earrings from Etsy...

Celie Fago Silver mud cloth earrings...

Threadsofchange clutch purse on etsy...

Asos mud cloth bag from Ciaafrique.com...

Lady O. rockin a mudcloth jacket...

Another Converse Mudcloth Limited Edition Sneaker...

Welcome to the Felt Club

I found some inspiring pieces made of felt. For those who aren't familiar with felt, its a non-woven cloth created by condensing or pressing together wool, fur, or hair fibers. You can make pretty neat creations with it, and its super durable!

Wendy Allen of Miss Fit designed these felt hats:

A Felt necklace by Lilyana Bekic on crafthaus.com:

A Recycled Felt Collar by Diana N'Diaye on crafthaus.com:

Felt Wrap provided by Feltworks.wordpress.com:

Felt Jacket by Rebecca Dallas on stylehive.com

Monster Bag from feltworks.com:

Felt Dress by Jenne Giles at Feltworks:

And the finale, a felt chimeee top by Jenne Giles at Feltworks! :)

The Tee Shirt Strikes Back!

This is a popular design technique i've seen used. I had to blog about it, inspiring tee shirt lovers everywhere Lol. Screen printing!

These images are brought to you by Threadless Tees. They make really funny t-shirts. (Check them out at www.threadless.com)

"Hans Off My Cookie!" Tee...

"Cooling Off" tee...

Fishin Chips tee...

Who invited the Herbivore?! tee... (love hummus)

Ah Munna Eat Choo Tee...

Electric Jellyfish Tee...

There are many local screen printing artists that make designed clothing. I'm going to cover one for now: DSSF. DSSF is a boutique on haight street, its an clothing boutique/art gallery/event space. Its the ultimate artists collective!
 (Check them out at http://www.d-structured.com/)

First Impression Tee..

Maestro Tee...

If you'd like to try screen printing t-shirts, here are some steps to get you there:

Materials Needed: screen printing ink, transparent material, embroidery hoop, t-shirt of your choice, design/picture of your choice, glue, brushes, sponge, cardboard, pencil, grungy clothes you don't mind getting ink on

1) Choose a picture or design that you would like to print on your shirt. The picture will need to be small enough to fit into an embroidery hoop.

2) Place transparent material in the embroidery hoop securely, and place the hoop on top of the picture you'll be designing onto the t-shirt.

3) With a pencil, trace the picture onto the material in the embroidery hoop. Trace all the details in your design! Don't leave out any details!


4) Spread glue over the areas that you don't want the screen printing ink to be. Use a sponge or paintbrush to spread the glue evenly.

5) Let the glue completely dry.

6) When glue is dry, place the embroidery hoop on top of your t-shirt so that the transparent material is laying against your t-shirt.

7) Place a cardboard piece larger than your picture inside the shirt, this will prevent the ink from bleeding through to the back of your shirt.

8) Apply the screen printing ink over the design. Do not use too much ink, make sure it is spread evenly.

9) Remove the embroidery hoop and allow the ink to dry.

10) Follow the instructions on your ink package to permanently set the image on your shirt.

Tada! Toodles :)

*And to note, screen printing is used for all sorts of clothing and accessory designs, and gorgeous couture clothing! But this post is for the t-shirt lovers out there! Frills and lace to come!

-D.

Paint on Silk! My new craze!

I just learned to how to do silk painting in my Surface Design class last week, I loved it! This is my first sample piece from last week. Its an abstract art piece of reds, yellows, and greens. I've also added a couple of artists that work with silk painting, and create beautiful clothing pieces as a result.

If you'd like to try silk painting, or just curious as to how it all works, here are some things you'll need and steps to do it:

Things you'll need: silk, silk stretcher, gutta or resist paste, dye or paints, paintbrushes, chemical fixative

Steps to paint on silk:
1) Once you have purchased and chosen the silk you want to paint on, you'll want to pre wash the silk item. Wash delicately or by hand and dry.

2) Create the design you'll paint, sketch the design on paper and transfer it to the silk. The easiest way to do this is by hanging the design on a window with the silk piece positioned over the design. Trace the design lightly onto the silk.

3) Stretch your silk by using a silk stretcher, or you can secure your silk by using stretching bars and push pins.

4) Trace your design with the gutta or resist paste. Gutta and resist are used as a barrier to keep dye away from that contained area.

5) Apply the dye to your silk piece with soft bristled brushes or foam tipped sponge brushes.

6) Let your silk painting dry, now you can set your color(s). When setting your color permanently into the silk, some of the best ways to do this is with steam or chemical fixative.

7) Remove the resist by hand washing in warm water, and hanging the silk to dry. To remove the gutta, you will need to dry clean your finished product.

Michelle Murphy is a silk painter and artist, she has been silk painting for over 20 years. You can find her scarves at indieshop.com.       http://www.indieshop.com/vendors/michelle-murphy

Sesenarts from Australia creates silk scarves for etsy

Traditional Indian clothing is one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of silk clothing.

Emanuel Ungaro's Spring 2010 Ready to Wear Collection incorporated alot of silks. This looks like silk painting to me..

That's all for now!

-D.