Once the rice paste is applied and dried, it gets stretched ..
Added 2024-05-30 00:59:51 +0000 UTCOnce the rice paste is applied and dried, it gets stretched out with bamboo called "Shinshi". The Shinshi keeps the fabric stretched so when the fabric goes into the dye vat, the rice paste does not stick to itself. If the wet rice paste sticks on to itself, the design will get ruined!
After about 3 dips in the vat, the fabric needs to rest and the rice paste needs to dry. It can only get so hydrated before it starts to fall off. I needed to do about 4 more dips to achieve an even darker shade of indigo, so I hung the fabric to rest before working on the next layer.
