PROCESS

STATEMENT

All of my scarves start out as a piece of white silk. Each piece is dyed a number of times using immersion dyes and hot water. These are the 'dye pots.'

Initially, the fabric is dyed a color. The "clamp dyed" or itajime styles are folded, clamped, dicharged, and dyed again to make a pattern of shapes. It is then rinsed and dried. At this point, the "gathered" shawls are stitched to gather the fabric in either the lengthwise dirction or the vertical direction.

The fabric is then wrapped around a pole (pvc or abs pipe), bound with thread, and pushed up to compress the fabric along the pipe and between the thread. Eventually all of the fabric is bound on the pipe which is then immersed in a dye pot, giving only the outer, exposed portion of the fabric another color.

The piece is then allowed to dry while still on the pipe. When it is removed, there are folds in the fabric where it was compressed, and the silk holds these folds as long as the fabric does not get wet. Thus, the dyeing process gives the fabric both color and shape. At this point most styles of scarves and shawls are complete. However for 'double pleated' scarves, the processes of wrapping and dying are done again over the first set of pleats.