Hikizome (brush dyeing with hikibake) and Sekidashi (brush dyeing using paste resist for designs) workshop taken at Aikuma Senryo in Tokyo. Picture here with teacher, Jiro Saida.
My sekidashi project before dyeing, paste (made from mochi) applied with plastic tsutsugaki cone (piping bag) and sprinkled with sawdust. Indigo pigment is mixed with nikawa (animal collagen) and painted into the design.
For hikizome, shown in the short video below, fabric has been prepared using gojiru (raw soy milk) and funori (type of seaweed), wetted gently in precise motions and angles with a pressurized misting apparatus according to the bokashi (blur) effect desired , then dye boiled from enjuu (pagoda tree buds) and yashadama (alder cones) is brushed on in thin layers.
The brushing technique is incredibly nuanced; wetting the brush with dye just the right amount, holding the brush upright and using short strokes, working from darkest areas into the lighter, using a wet brush with no dye to blur the dyed areas, brushing on top and bottom of the fabric... It seems that the properties of the brushes, dyes, water, and the fabric are all balanced in order to create the desired effect; using the brush to distribute liquid, and also to pull it away, using the mist to create precise areas in which blur will occur... The dyed fabric is then brushed with baisen (mordant) thoroughly on both top and bottom.