Shibori workshop

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a fabulous workshop Dye-linquent Shibori workshop: dyeing and up-cycling garments along with Lamina, my fabulous fellow craft nut ;-) It was held at the Powerhouse Museum here in Sydney as part of their 'Craftpunk' series.

The workshop was held by the lovely women from Shibori, Karen and Pepa. Lamina and I were green with envy hearing about their backgrounds in textiles and their experience studying shibori in Japan. Ah, if only I was 20 again and could study anything I liked, textiles would surely be it...

We were shown how to make an indigo dye vat (amazing!) and then how to fold or tie fabric to make patterns "shibori". As the workshop was only 2 hours long we didn't get much time to try the dyeing, and the venue, not being a wet, ventilated space, was obviously not ideal, but the experience of learning about it and watching and talking to Karen and Pepa was very enjoyable.




 

I came away with a couple of pieces and an interest in both indigo dyeing and shibori, and am enjoying looking at all the detail and little features that the indigo dye brings out. Though the last thing I need at the moment is another craft hobby, particularly one that involves a large vat of incredibly smelly sludgy dye, just waiting to be nocked over by a small person ;-) Still, it was a great experience and I'm filing it away in that folder in my brain labelled "crafts to try one day" ;-)

I could become a workshop junkie at this rate and will certainly be on the lookout for future workshops.

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In unrelated goings on, my 4 year old daughter made this little scene today of her barbie giving birth. She didn't get why I laughed... if only it was as easy as Barbie makes it look! I sure didn't have that serene smile on my face!

Happy weekend everyone.