Shibori

Shibori is a Japanese family of resist-dyeing techniques in which cloth is manipulated, most often bound, stitched, folded, twisted, or compressed, before dyeing, so that the manipulated areas resist the dye and remain the fabric's original color while the exposed areas take the color, producing a design once the binding is removed. The term covers many distinct sub-techniques distinguished by the manipulation method, including kanoko shibori, in which small sections of cloth are bound individually to produce dappled, spot-like patterns; itajime shibori, in which cloth is folded and pressed between shaped boards; and arashi shibori, in which cloth is wound diagonally around a pole and then bound, producing a pattern of diagonal pleats. Documented in Japan since at least the eighth century, shibori developed alongside comparable resist-dyeing traditions in other parts of the world, and the technique remains in active traditional and contemporary use, valued for the way its process leaves a distinctive dimensional texture in the cloth itself as well as color pattern.