Arashi Jpop

[Magnhild Mongolo]

Alsoknown as pole-wrapping shibori, arashi (Japanese for "storm") shibori is a japanese dye technique that results in diagonal stripes that are reminiscent of storm driven rain. I am going to demonstrate a very basic pattern with only two folds, however true masters of this art are able to produce very intricate patterns, as well as take advantage of the pleating which occurs to create structural pieces that are incredibly beautiful. See some examples of this here. Wow!

I get all my dye and supplies at Dharma Trading. They have a great selection of fabrics and dyes. If you are completely new to fabric dyeing, you want to buy fabrics of natural fibers (cotton, silk, rayon), as otherwise they will not accept the dye. For this tutorial, I used a natural indigo dye.

My end plan for this fabric is to make a beach cover up, and wanted to have only one large chevron on the front and back. As such only folded it in half and then in half again. At each fold the stripes will change direction, so to make many chevrons you would fold the fabric in an accordion style to your desired width of chevron.

Once you have folded your fabric, wrap the pole at a diagonal starting with the center. If you end up with a long thin fold of fabric vs my near square, it will end up wrapping the pole more like a ribbon, and will benefit from using some tape on either end to keep it taught and in place as you begin the next step.

Now it is time to define your pattern. Tie string around the bottom of the pole and secure with a piece of tape. Each wrap of the string will create a stripe where the dye will not permeate as fully, and can be as precise or loose as you like. I was pretty loose with my stripes (mine are about 3/4"), however if I had more folds in the fabric I probably would have kept my wraps closer together for a more detailed stripe.

After wrapping a few rows of fabric, carefully scrunch the whole fabric piece down to pleat around each string. If you have secured the fabric with tape at the other end for stability, gently untape, push down, and retape every few rows. The tighter you push the fabric down, the less the dye will be able to permeate. In my case my stripes remained white, whereas if I had left it looser it would have been two shades of blue.

It was my first time using indigo dye, which is a great science experiment as it is pea green upon leaving the dye, and sets to blue through oxidation. You can see in the photos how the color changes quickly to the blue it will become. I was unfamiliar with indigo dyeing and assumed that the amount of time in the dye bath wasn't super important to the final color, as oxygen was what set the dye. I learned however that to achieve a nice dark blue, you have to either gently agitate it in the dye bath for at least five minutes, or even better submerge it two or three times, allowing for it to oxidize in between.

First, rinse the fabric in the sink with lukewarm water until the water runs clear. Then wash it in a machine on warm or hot to rid the fabric of the rest of the loose dye. Especially if you have dyed a thicker fabric like cotton jersey or something super dark, you will want to run it through twice to assure color fastness.

As mentioned in the last step, I did not let my fabric sit in the dye long enough to achieve this darker color shown above. I learned from dyeing a number of things that with indigo the midtones wash out easily, while the darkest shades stick really well. Keep that in mind during the dye process in order to get the color you want.

Leo and Sharlotte arrived at the studio and were automatically lead to the waiting room, not even aware of which show we would be filming for. Inside the waiting room, several other celebrities were waiting inside.

Without even bothering to reply, they both headed into the waiting rooms. Minhyuk turned to Kai before whispering, "You know what? I swear those two people are becoming more and more like each other."

All the others nodded their heads and let the subject drop. The two walked out soon and placed their clothes back into the bags they brought with them before allowing the staff to place the microphones on safely before preparing for filming.

The six of them hid behind the set whilst they heard the members of Arashi begin their introduction before the called them to the stage. The ran onto the set and began to wait for the applause the calm down.

"Welcome to the show, this it the first time we have had a special like this. Some of you have worked in the japanese industry through dramas and have all had concerts in Japan. Today, is a day we must win Arashi."

The revolving board began to bring each obstacle of carefully stacked silver and red tins. Sharlotte's first kick caused the ball to swerve right and entirely missed the target. Minhyuk hit the target but only knocked of a single red tin while Leo hit the target knocking over all the targets besides the bottom tin can. The second target was completely knocked over by Minhyuk and the third target was hit but none of the red tins fell.

Completing her promise, Sharlotte knocked over the fourth target achieving a perfect before the half of he final obstacle was knocked over by all three members. The siren finally went off and the narrator began speaking.

The siren once against started and the revolving board began to bring the first target out once more. Aiba kicked the ball trying to hit the target, but rather than hitting the target, his ball hit the side board and shot back to him, just missing him by a few centimetres.

Ohno and the sandwich man were laughing really hard but also had to concentrate on kicking the ball at the right timing. The entire first target was missed but everyone seemed to have the intuition and seemed to have closer and closer shoots to the target. Ohno, knocked over half of the second target and sandwich man scored a perfect for the third target. Aiba still hadn't knocked over any targets but he completely hit the fourth target. The target wobbled but stood standing. Thinking that Aiba had knocked over the target, the sandwich man and Ohno kicked but their gym balls went left and right of the target. The final target was hit by Aiba and two white tins were knocked over, sandwich man's ball hit the target making the target twist and the top two layers fall. Ohno finished it off by hitting the target in the centre but missed getting a perfect.

Before they moved onto the next game, a short intermission was taken. The staff began playing the different kpop and jpop songs and the staff began cheering and clapping to the beat. Sakurai stepped forwards the invited Sharlotte to the set from the seating area. CHAOS' song 'Maze' came on and Sharlotte began to dance along with Sakurai trying to copy the dance moves.

The mood in the studio lightened and a short break was taken before the second game was started. Backstage, the two different groups had cameras following them and seeing what they talked about behind the scenes.

"Okay, they L and Kai will go up for cliff climb. L, just go up the far right wall and come down as soon as possible, so Kai can climb the middle and far left wall. That should allow us to have the fastest time."

"Well since their main aim is to get a high score, I don't think we have to worry too much right now with a lead of 160 points. I think we should let Ninomiya have another try at the bridge, it won't impact us too greatly."

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