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SHIBORI TECHNIQUES ON SILK
DATE: January 17th, 2026 TIME: 10am-6pm REGISTRATION FEE: $120 per person. All materials and equipment included. ***Please bring a lunch with you for Saturday's class. We will take a short break halfway through class. *** CLASS DESCRIPTION: Wendy Smith-Wood specializes in shibori, the ancient Japanese craft of dyeing fabric by using ways to “resist the dye”. This workshop will cover several ways of dyeing silk including Japanese Arashi Shibori and Itajime. We may also use techniques of discharge and other shibori methods. Arashi shibori is the japanese term for “wound on a pole”. Arashi shibori is the Japanese art of tying silk on a pole and then applying dyes by hand. When the silk is set and untied, patterns and color are left in the scarf. Itajime is the art of folding and squeezing the silk between blocks and then dipping in a vat of dye. From beginner to intermediate This is a dyeing class. We will use silk and acid dyes. We will learn how to use resist techniques (shibori) and concentrate on pole-tying and blocking to create color patterns and textures. The aim is to produce a scarf or wall hanging to take home at the end of the class. |
Your Instructor: Wendy Smith-Wood
Retired mountaineer and musher, Smith-Wood sensei is a fiber artist living with her husband on an Alaskan homestead at Sheep Mountain close to the Matanuska glacier. She spent fifteen years as a mountain guide on the old silk routes in the Pamirs and Karakorum mountains, and climbing in the Himalayas, Atlas, Alps and Pyrenees. Each winter she traveled to Alaska to mush dogs in her favorite wilderness.
For the past 10 years she has worked as a textile artist specializing in Arashi Shibori. She produces exquisite ‘haute couture’ scarves and shawls. She also paints on silk for a short time each summer and is experimenting with sculptural Shibori wall-art .
Her work has been sold to Hollywood, state Senators, the Kennedys and many, many Alaskans who have supported her over the years. She winters in Central Florida near Arching Oaks Art and Culture Center.
PBS video on Wendy: https://video.milwaukeepbs.org/video/i-am-an-off-the-grid-artist-indie-alaska-gbcwvk
Retired mountaineer and musher, Smith-Wood sensei is a fiber artist living with her husband on an Alaskan homestead at Sheep Mountain close to the Matanuska glacier. She spent fifteen years as a mountain guide on the old silk routes in the Pamirs and Karakorum mountains, and climbing in the Himalayas, Atlas, Alps and Pyrenees. Each winter she traveled to Alaska to mush dogs in her favorite wilderness.
For the past 10 years she has worked as a textile artist specializing in Arashi Shibori. She produces exquisite ‘haute couture’ scarves and shawls. She also paints on silk for a short time each summer and is experimenting with sculptural Shibori wall-art .
Her work has been sold to Hollywood, state Senators, the Kennedys and many, many Alaskans who have supported her over the years. She winters in Central Florida near Arching Oaks Art and Culture Center.
PBS video on Wendy: https://video.milwaukeepbs.org/video/i-am-an-off-the-grid-artist-indie-alaska-gbcwvk
