Thursday was an explosion of color! As people arrived, they selected from a rainbow of embroidery flosses and revisited the childhood craft of making friendship bracelets. How appropriate for an IL centered around simplicity. Then we cleared our work areas and set out blank cotton sheets, because it was time to try out the dyes we had been working on all week. We were introduced to some of the basics of Japanese dying technique called shibori, which involves folding cloth into elaborate patterns around wood, stones, clips, and rubber bands to create beautiful patterns.
Overall this week has been an eye-opening exploration of ways to express ourselves with materials found in nature. We can’t wait to show off all our work to the LS students and the rest of the school tomorrow!
Some others in our group had this to say about our day …
“Our hands froze off while we were dyeing them, but our banners came out really nicely.”
“I tried painting with natural dyes again, but it didn’t work as well as Tuesday.”
“Today I finished my basket, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
“I also learned how to naturally dye cloth, and I love the designs that came out.”
“I’m really looking forward to trying more stuff like this in the future.”
“I enjoyed seeing how all the foods could create such vibrant colors in the fabrics.”
“I also really enjoyed folding the fabrics in different ways and using rubber bands, clips, wood, and rocks to create different patterns. They turned out really well, and it was fun to dye them outside.”