Resist Dyeing and Printing

Wax Resist(Batik)

Tie and Dye

Starch resist

Mud Resist(Ajrakh)

Stenciling

Fabric resist dyeing

Warp and Weft resist dyeing

Arashi Shibori

Itajime Bandhani Tritik

Ikat

Resist dyeing

Resist Printing

Warp ikat

Weft ikat

Double ikat

The word is derived from the Japanese root verb shiboru, which means to “wring”, squeeze,press”

The basic technique of Shibori is to draw a design on a piece of fabric(ususaaly cotton or silk), then to tie very tight knots when they are untied there is apattern of dyed and undyed areas.

Shibori entered Japan around 1300 years go from China, along with the Chinese style of dress, and was interpreted in a particularly Jpanese fashion.

Traditionally , shibori was created by dyeing fabric in a fermented indigo vat. Aiandigo has a long history in Africa, China, Japan and India, where it is recorded in four thousand year old Sanskrit documents. Egyptian Pharaohs buried their gead in indigo dyed cloth.

Shibori was originally an art of the poor peasant Japan. The art of shibori evolved as a means of making old clothes look new.

Three terms for separate shibori methods have come into international usage: Arashi Shibori Itajime Bandhani Tritik Ikat

Arashi Shibori

This is the kind of resist dyeing where the fabric/yarn is pole wrapped and dyed.

This technique in Japan was worked using a long, tapered wooden pole. The fabric was wrapped around this and then wrapped with thread every 10cm or so. Then it is pushed down the pole to form folds. This process continued until all the fabric was wrapped and compressed. The fabric was then lowered into a long narrow vat of indigo dye.

The western way of achieving this fantastic technique is to wrap the fabric around a short length of plastic drainpipe before being wrapped with a thread, the fabric is pushed into folds to compress it before immersing into a dye bath.

Tritik

Stitched resist, like tie and dye, prevents dye reaching parts of the cloth. In Indonesia this technique is known as tritik and in Nigeria as adire alabere.

It is a commonly used technique in Japan, Indonesia and West African countries of Senegal, Mali, the Gambia, Sierra Leon, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Cameroon.

In some places of Indonesia (Sumatra) effects are produced in combination of some other resist technique along with stitched resist technique, the process is called Selendangs.

Leharia and Mothara In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Marwaris , the dominant

business community of Rajasthan and India, wore elaborately tied, brightly coloured turbans as their distinguishing mark. These turbans were made by the leharia technique. This process is continued to be practiced in the dyeing quarters of Jodhpur, Jaipur , Udaipur and Nathdwara.

Long length or turban cloths are folded first in usual width and across fold . Then the folded fabric is rolled diagonally, ties are placed at intervals and the roll is dyed. This way wavy resist lines are produced on the cloth, known as leharia.

In case of mothara the long turban fabrics are folded diagonally from one corner. Ties are placed at regular intervals, dyed then unfolded and the process is repeated from the opposite corner, hence check patterns are produced. Leheria Mothara

Itajime- folded and bound/clamp resist

The process of folding fabrics and then clamping it between boards or sticks originated in the 8th century, but with the emergence of chemical dyes in the 19th century, the technique begun to flourish.

Katano Arimatsu , who invented the arashi shibori has been credited with developing the technique at Arimatsu, where the technique is known as kekka shibori.

The fabric is folded into wide vertical pleats, subsequently folded into squares, rectangles or triangles and then clamped between two pieces of wood or similar material. The shapes of the boards will determine the resulting pattern on the dyed fabric. The bundle of fabric is then bound with a strong thread or a clamping device. The pressure exerted during the binding or clamping process will affect how the dye penetrates the fabric.

Bandhani

This technique is used extensively in India, where it is known as ‘bandhani’ from which we get the word 'bandanna' - a silk neckcloth that was originally tie-dyed.

Its an Indian term of plucking and binding cloth at small points. In one of the most traditional methods, now used less frequently, the

dampened fabric is placed over a pattern block of raised pins. The cloth is pinched between the thumb and index finger at each point and tied with waxed thread.

A tie-dying method called ‘lehariya’ is used in India for turban cloths. Fine cloth such as muslin is folded concertina-fashion and tied tightly at intervals. It is dipped quickly in dye of a pale colour. Some areas are then unrolled and the process is repeated with progressively darker dyes, to build up a range of colours in stripes.

Ikat

Ikat is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs a resist dyeing process on the warp fibres, the weft fibres, or in the rare and costly 'double ikat' both warp and weft, prior to dyeing and weaving.

In ikat, the resist is formed by binding bundles of threads with a tight wrapping applied in the desired pattern. The threads are then dyed. The bindings may then be altered and the thread bundles dyed again with another color to produce elaborate, multicolored patterns. When the dyeing is finished the bindings are removed and the threads are woven into cloth.

As woven fabric rarely survives for more than a few centuries it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine where the technique of ikat originated. It probably developed in several different locations independently. Ikat was known to be produced in several pre-Columbian Central and South American cultures.

Warp Ikat

Ikat created by dyeing the warp are simpler to make than either weft ikat or double ikat. First the material, be it cotton, silk, wool or other, is tied into bundles. The bundles may be covered with wax wrapped tightly with thread or some other dye-resistant material- to prevent unwanted dye permeation. The resist dye procedure is repeated depending on the colouration desired of the warp bundle. Warp threads are adjusted for the desired alignment for precise motifs.

Weft Ikat

Weft ikat uses resist-dye for the weft alone. The variance in colour of the weft means precisely delineated patterns are more difficult to weave.

Double Ikat

Double Ikat is created by resist-dyeing both the war and weft prior to weaving.This form of weaving requires the most skill for precise patterns to be woven and is considered the premiere form of ikat. Indian and Indonesian examples typify highly precise double ikat. Especially prized are the double ikats woven in silk known in India and Indonesia as patola .

The Process

Step 1: The master weaver studies the design, and calculates where the yarn needs to be tie-dyed.Step 2: Before the tying begins, the yarn has to be collected into a length of 25 metres (length of one warp on these looms).

Step 3: After the yarn is marked by the master weaver, helpers (employed by the master weaver), sit down to tie the yarn. A thick rope of many yarns together is used for thin lines, and rubber is used for thick or wider white patches. Step 4: The yarn is tied and dyed repeatedly for different colours. For example, if the pattern above has to be replicated in blue and green, the yarn is first tied in all places that are eventually going to end up as either green or white. Then the yarn is dipped into a vat of blue dye.Step 5: The yarn is dried, and then all parts that were dyed blue are now covered with rubber. The parts that are meant to be white stay covered, and the parts that are meant to be green are now uncovered.Step 6: Then the yarn is dipped into a vat full of green dye, where the exposed yarn turns green. Finally, the yarn is dried and all the covered parts are untied.Step 7: Once the yarn is completely dried, it is ready to be woven.

Wax Resist The application of a wax-resist before dyeing to form a pattern in negative is most often

referred to by the Javanese word batik. Wax resist dyeing of fabric is an ancient art form. It already existed in Egypt in the 4th

century BC, where it was used to wrap mummies; linen was soaked in wax, and scratched using a stylus. In Asia, the technique was practiced in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and in India and Japan during the Nara Period(645-794 AD).

Batik is practiced in India, Srilanka, China, South-East Asia, Turkey and West-Africa, but in Indonesia, on the island of Java, the craft has been brought to an acme of refinement. Nowhere else has wax-resist cloth been so finely detailed.

Firstly, a cloth is washed, soaked and beaten with a large mallet. Patterns are drawn with pencil and later redrawn using hot wax, usually made from a mixture of paraffin or bees wax, sometimes mixed with plant resins, which functions as a dye-resist. The wax can be applied with a variety of tools. A pen-like instrument called a canting. After the cloth is dry, the resist is removed by scraping or boiling the cloth. The areas treated with resist keep their original color; when the resist is removed the contrast between the dyed and undyed areas forms the pattern. This process is repeated as many times as the number of colors desired.

The origins of batik are obscure, but what is certain is that the Javanese invention of the canting waxing instrument enabled the finest hand drawn batik to be produced.

In Java in the middle of the 19th century a very new technique of wax resisting was evolved where engraved copper plates in the line of early European printing blocks were used to create negative pattern before resisting.

Starch Resist In Nigeria and Japan starch is used as a resist medium

for designs on cloth to be dyed with Indigo. In Nigeria the starch is applied by hand. The starch is

derived from either cassava or cornflower and known as lafun or eko. The starch is applied on the whole cloth and after drying the patterns are scrapped on the surface of the fabric, then the whole cloth is indigo died. Since the starch applied is not completely impermeable so the patterns assume some amount of dye and the appearance of the cloth is light blue motifs on dark indigo background. The technique has a similarity to Indonesian batik because the motifs are derived in negative.

In Japan the starch resisting was very popular and the application and patterning was done either by hand or by stenciling. The process is known as tsutsugaki if the starch is applied by hand .

If the starch is applied by stencil then the process is known as katazome. The starch used is made of rice and known as tsutsu.

Stenciling is a widespread technique used either to implant a design directly, or to apply starch in the dye-resist process. The Japanese perfected this stenciling technique as early as 8th century .Their specialty of stenciling became famous as katazome.

This was the mother process of the present day hugely popular screen-printing process.Some other parts of the world has also seen some advent of this process, like Afghanistan and India. Katazome is a Japanese method of dyeing fabrics using a resist paste applied through a stencil. With this kind of resist dyeing, a rice flour mixture is applied using a brush or a tool such as a palette knife. Pigment is added by hand-painting, immersion or both. Where the paste mixture covers and permeates the cloth, dye applied later will not penetrate.

One attraction of katazome was that it provided an inexpensive way for over-all patterns similar to expensive woven brocades to be achieved on cotton. As with many everyday crafts of Japan it developed into a respected art form of its own.Besides cotton, katazome has been used to decorate linen, silk and fabrics that are all or partially synthetic.

Stenciling

Ajrakh

Ajrakh is a time-honored emblem for the local communities of Kachchh. Nomadic pastoralist and agricultural communities like the Rabaris, Maldharis, and Ahirs wear Ajrakh printed cloth as turbans, lungis, or stoles. It was given as a gift for the Muslim festival of Eid, for bridegrooms, and for other special occasions.

Ajrakh is a rectangular cotton textile, traditionally worn by men as a shoulder mantle, shawl or turban. It is believed that this word may have arrived from the arabic word blue. Dominant colours are blue and red with some white retained and black used as outlines.

The patterned configuration of an Ajrakh print is a mirror interpretation of the trigonometric architectural symmetry in medieval Islamic structures encapsulating it with the singular binding theory of the of the universe.

A bust of a priest-king excavated at Mohenjo-daro, currently in the National Museum of Pakistan, shows him draped over one shoulder in a piece of cloth that resembles an ajrak. Of special note are the trefoil pattern etched on the person's garment interspersed with small circles, the interiors of which were filled with a red pigment. This symbol illustrates what is believed to be an edifice depicting the fusion of the three sun-disks of the gods of the sun, water and the earth. Excavations elsewhere in the Old World around Mesopotamia have yielded similar patterns appearing on various objects, most notably on the royal couch of Tutankhamen. Similar patterns appear in recent ajrak prints.

The cloth is made in a sixteen step process of washing, dyeing, printing, and drying, which requires a high level of skill and concentration in order to keep colors fast and even. Pomegranate seeds, gum, Harde powder, wood, flour of Kachika, flower of Dhavadi, alizarine and locally cultivated Indigo are just some of the natural resources that printers in this craft.

The process of 'Ajrakh' is a long drawn process with many stages individually taking days to finish. The process is as follows:

• SaajCotton cloth is taken and washed to remove any finish applied in the mill or workshop. It is generally the starch that is to be removed from the cloth. The cloth is soaked in a solution of camel dung, soda ash and castor oil. It is then wrung out and kept overnight. The next day the cloth is semi-dried in the sun and then soaked in the solution again. This process of Saaj and drying is repeated for about 7-8 times until the cloth foams when rubbed. It is then washed in plain water. .• KasanoThe cloth is washed in a solution of Myrobalan; which is the powdered nut of the Harde tree. Myrobalan acts as the first mordant in the dyeing process. The cloth is sun dried on both sides. The excess myrobalan on the cloth after drying is brushed off

• KhariyanuA resist of lime (used for whitewash) and gum arabic (Babool tree resin) is printed onto the cloth to outline the design motifs that will be white. This outline printing is known as Rekh. The resist is printed to both sides of the cloth using carved wooden blocks.

KatScrap iron, jaggery is mixed with water and left for about 20 days. This makes the water ferrous. This ferrous water is then mixed with tamarind seed powder and boiled into a paste. This paste is used for black printing. This paste is called Kat. The paste is printed onto both sides of the cloth.

• GachAlum, clay and gum arabic are mixed into a paste used for the next resist printing. A resist of lime and gum arabic is also printed at this time. This combined stage is called as Gach. Sawdust or finely powdered cow dung is sprinkled on to the printed areas to protect the clay from smudging.

• Indigo dyeingThe cloth is dyed in indigo. It is dried in the sun and then dyed again in indigo twice to ensure a uniform colour.

• VichharnuThe cloth is washed thoroughly to remove all of the resist print and unfixed dye.

• RangThe cloth is then boiled with Alizarine (synthetic madder) to give the alum-residue areas a bright red colour. Alum acts as a mordant to help fix the red colour. The grey areas from the black printing stages get a deep shade. For other colours the cloth is boiled with a different dye. Madder root (Sanskrit. Manjishtha root) gives an orange colour, Henna gives a light yellowish-green colour, and Rhubarb root gives a pale brownish colour.

Heat Setting Heat setting on fabrics is a technical approach of fabric manipulation that provides a

platform into some of the most creative and innovative approaches to surface and textile design. This technique enables a flat fabric to be transformed into structural and sculptural forms.

All synthetic fibres will melt at a certain temperature, but below this point they will often heat set into a different form. By tying, stitching or clamping fabrics into folds before heating, various features can be created.”

100% Polyester organza, georgette, crepe and netting fabrics. Polyester belongs to the group of Synthetic

Heat setting an effect caused by textile treatments, mainly Shibori. In the process of Shibori, high temperature and suitable pressure are applied to a fabric under controlled conditions, so that the physical properties of the fabric are altered. In another words, the amount of pressure and type of resist determine the 3D shapes created on fabrics.

Shibori is more than creating patterns on cloth. It can turn fabric from a two-dimensional into a three-dimensional object.

“Quality of a fibre whose molecular structure breaks down and becomes fluid at a certain temperature, making it possible to reshape the fabric by pleating, moulding, vacuum-forming or crushing. The fabric is ‘fixed’ on cooling and cannot be altered unless heated to a temperature greater than the one at which it was reshaped.” This three dimensional surface structure is hence permanent and it can be maintained even with washing in cold water.

In order to demonstrate the heat-setting property of different materials, three kinds of shibori were employed accordingly. There are numerous types of shibori existing in the industry but these three types of them can produce obvious sculptural effects that demonstrate the heat-setting properties of fabrics.

1)Twisting and Binding- Spiderweb shibori .

• Thread-resisted ring (ne-maki) shibori is one of the examples using twisting and binding skills to create sculptural effects and dyed patterns on cloth.

• Marble shibori is a type of shibori that can demonstrate knotting and binding techniques. In the process of Shibori, marbles are wrapped around by the cloth so that the cloth is heat-set to the knotted and bound shape. Binding must be needed for this shibori to be carried out.

• Another shibori that combine twisting technique would be spiderweb (Kumo) Shibori. Spiderweb Shibori has a long history in Japan. In this shibori, the cloth is finely twisted and bounded to create delicate spider web pattern. If the shibori is done by hand, much skills and time are required

2)Gathering and Knotting- Wood-grain Shibori

Gathers on fabric can be created by plucking or stitching on 15 cloth. Both the methodscan produce intense creases on cloth. When knotting combines with stitching technique,it is used as a securing method for heat-setting the fabric. • Plucking (yokobiki) shibori is a kind of shibori that create

gathering effect by plucking a tiny bit of cloth and bind it with thread. The thread is not bound very tightly as the gathering effect is the focus of this kind of plucking shibori. • A line of running stitch on one layer of fabric is called wood

grain (mokume) shibori. Usually the stitching is done in parallel to the weft of fabric as a shorter thread can be used. Theoretically, the parallel stitching can be in any direction to achieve the wood grain sculptural effect. A knot is drawn up at the end of thread to hold the gathers. Besides wood grain shibori, there are a lot of variations by manipulating the folding of cloth and the arrangement of stitches. For example, Japanese larch (karamatsu) shibori, linked circle (shippo-tsunagi) patterned shibori and chevron stripes (maki-nui) shibori.

3)Folding and Clamping- Board-clamping Shibori

Among the different folding techniques, pleating is an important skill that has been used for more than three hundred years in the history of Japan. Parallel strips of shapes and colors can be set by pleating. It has a wide variation as the sizes, direction and patterns of pleating vary according to designs.

Factors affecting Heat Setting:

The fiber content of fabric; - The fabric structure of materials; - The duration of heat-setting process; - The temperature throughout the heat-setting process; and - The amount of pressure applied (if any) onto the fabric

One of the most innovative fashiondesigners who use the heat setting technique is Issey Miyake. “Issey Miyake is fascinated bythe transformation of a two-dimensional, flatand inanimate fabric to the moving sculpturalform it becomes when worn … and IsseyMiyake explore this by pleating horizontally,vertically and diagonally … Texture and formare created simultaneously using this processwhich reacts with the memory of the fabric,resulting in permanently pleated garments.” 3The few methods of production used in thisseries of work are pleating, crushing andmoulding. When these techniques arecombined with each other, the overall creativeresult can be enhanced. The productionmethods of the techniques will be discussed inthe following sub sections.

Tsuyoshi Kuno Tsuyoshi Kuno is a textile artist who modernized shibori with high-pressure and high-temperature industrial chambers. His studio reached high production of shibori fabrics in early 1990s. Kuno is famous for applying shibori on unusual fabrics. As a young textile designer, Kuno often cooperates with different fashion designers and also designs costumes and home textiles