8-Shaft Twill & Plain Weave Woven Shibori Bag

8-Shaft Twill & Plain Weave
Woven Shibori Bag by Nancy Rodrigues, WGB #4058, Westport, MA
The design for this fabric came from notes
taken in a woven shibori workshop with
Catharine Ellis in 2001 and from her
book (Ellis, 2005). The pattern used for the
bag is from Ericson (2004, #201). Nancy
adapted a variation of purse “C” to the size
bag that she liked. Because the black fabric
discharged to a rust color, red seemed like a nice
complement to work with the rust and the black.
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Threading Draft. A shibori pattern thread used
for pulling (shown in red) is thrown after every
four picks of plain weave. After discharging
and dyeing, these threads are removed to leave
a patterned plain weave fabric. Three pulling
thread patterns are shown top to bottom: 1)
Diamond Twill; 2) Stripes; and 3) Ws (point in
The warp and weft are black 10/2 cotton,
sett at 24 epi (2 epd in a 12-dpi reed). The
cloth was woven at 30 ppi, 24 in the plain
weave ground plus six shibori patterning
threads. After taking the fabric off the
loom, the embroidery floss pattern threads
were knotted and pulled very tight to form
the resist. Next, the piece was soaked in a
1:3 bleach and water solution for a couple
of minutes to remove the color. The fabric
was rinsed, treated with Anti-Chlor to stop
the chlorine action of the bleach, and then
over-dyed with reactive dyes to color the
bleached areas. After rinsing and washing
out the excess dye, the pattern threads were
removed; the fabric was pressed, and ready
for sewing. In the process there was a 12%
dimensional change in the weft. The bag
measures 11" x 12" x 2".
Nancy has been weaving, or at least around
weaving, since the 1970s when her grandmother, Isabel Boan, bought herself an 8"
Structo loom and started taking lessons.
Nancy learned to weave primarily from her
grandmother, guild workshops, and many
years of attending the New England Weavers Seminar. She writes, “I have no special
focus on a particular kind of weaving, I
just wait and see what crosses my path and
interests me. Woven shibori is a nice combination that answers the question, ‘Do I
want to weave something about pattern
and structure, or about color and texture?’ ”
A 10-shaft 32" Macomber loom was used
to weave this piece.
the warp and straight twill in the weft).
Combinations of Structures
WGB 90th Anniversary
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