Name: Lily
Message: Dear Paula,

I have been trying (without success) to tie-dye a marijuana leaf on a square sheet of cotton fabric to make a wallhanging. It's for a school project in my art class. Basically, I'm not sure how to fold or dye the fabric to achieve the shape I want. Already I know how to mix dyes properly and use soda ash fixative, but I am stuck for marijuana leaves. There is a particular design I was inspired by from this website [shown to the right].

Hopefully you could help me? If you could, please let me know how you think the folding would be done, as well as the consistency of dyes and choice of colour. I live in Sydney, Australia and there are very few places here where you can actually get Procion MX dyes - in fact I had to order mine in from a very expensive supplier - Batik Oetoro....Geez, it's all getting very frustrating.

Another source for mail-ordering Procion MX dyes in Australia is Kraftkolour, though I don't know how much more shipping from Melbourne might cost, but it costs even more than Batik Oetoro. Fifty grams of Procion MX dye costs AUS$10 from Batik Oetoro, and half a kilogram AUS$70, 10% GST included, whereas at Kraftkolour it costs $11 for 50 grams or $77 for half a kilo. That is two to three times the cost from the least expensive US retailers, not including tax or shipping, which run about US$20-25 a pound, or $4-5 per 58 grams. Many people happily buy dyes in shops for $3 for about 5 grams of dye, just enough to dye half a pound of fabric, though, so it's not as though cheap dye is the norm even here in the US.

That's a beautifully dyed shirt by Weef. You can see that it requires skill and experience to get the ideal design. You will have to make a number of less-than-satisfactory practice banners before you get one that looks the way you want it to. I would like to encourage those reading this blog to consider buying from Weefcraft, where they have already invested the time and effort to work this out. I can give you some pointers on how to start, but only a great deal of trial and error will enable you to achieve perfect results.

For the marijuana leaf question, the key point is the symmetry, or rather, partial symmetry. First think of dyeing a completely symmetrical leaf, dyeing each of (usually) seven leaflets plus the stem, for a total of eight points. Later you can think about applying the dye a little unevenly to make the center leaflet longer, the opposite stem shorter, and the other leaflets intermediate in length. First fold the fabric into sixteenths, but do not enclose some of the folds within others, more than necessary. Instead, first fold the fabric in half, and then do a sort of accordian fold, up-down-up-down-up, using a method like that shown in the picture below which I drew for my page on "How to Tie Dye Mandalas and Stars":

Clearly, once you've folded the fabric into sixteens, the goal will be to apply the green dye, probably thickened first with some sodium alginate, to one side of the bundle, so as to make eight spokes radiating from the center. Using alginate will reduce the tendency of your dye to spread, allowing greater control. See my dye thickener page.

I recommend that you use a very thin fabric, such as a fine rayon (which is a cellulose fiber that can be dyed just like cotton, though you should be gentle with it, because rayon is weak when it is wet). Thick jerseys will make it difficult to obtain fine details. If you tie the leaves off from the rest of the design, you should first draw a guideline (pencil is safest) that extends at a sharp angle, from a point not far from the center point of the folded fabric,to a point on the opposite side of the fabric several inches away from the center. The dye you place immediately adjacent to the leaves should probably be yellow, since this will not ruin the laves if it creeps into them.

I don't know of any step-by-step instructions online for how to dye a marijuana leaf, but there are some excellently illustrated instructions on dyeing a shamrock, with three-fold symmetry. Look at these instructions for tie-dyeing a shamrock by Kathy of Desert Dyeworks.

The instructions in the True Tie Dye video, Tie Dye 303, part of the Advanced Tie Dye Techniques Set, does not, as far as I recall, include a palmately divided leaf, but their mandala and star folding examples are certainly helpful in learning how to think about and make patterns with radial symmetry. The DVDs are available in the PAL format used in Australia and Europe, as well as the NTSC format used in the Americas and Japan.

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