 Arimatsu-Narumi Shibori. Textile finishing at the highest level. „Wring, press and twist“ – this is the English translation of the Japanese verb shiboru. Three words which together describe the main characteristics of the Japanese textile finishing technique Shibori. In Shibori, certain parts of the textile surface are folded in a special way, tied off or taken in, whereby parts of the surface are reserved. Through these well thought out manipulations of the carrier material, fluid colour transitions, but also three-dimensional patters, structures and colour contrasts occur when dyeing raw fabrics. Softly subsiding contour and softly flowing colour transitions which result in a rhythmically structured surface structure, are characteristic of materials that were adorned with this technique. Originally the Shibori technique was applied to silk and wool fabrics as well as plant fibres such as cotton and flax. Over the course of the past decades, Japanese craftsmen have started to also treat chemically produced fibres, for example polyester and nylon, as well as leather and metals. Over the centuries, a variety of different techniques were developed within the Shibori craft in Arimatsu and Narumi, which quite often only differed in nuances from another. One particular aspect is that no two craftsmen reserve the same material in the same fashion and as such the products always feature the respective artisan‘s „signature“. This way a multitude of textile designs with highly individualised characteristics is created within a time-honoured traditional framework, fascinating time and again through their high quality. |