Name: Dianne
Message: Hi - I am so grateful to you for your wonderful site!  I've already ordered the Elmer's glue gel to use as a resist (I've been trying to make a cloud-print turquoise shirt for two years now), and I'll try your suggestions on dyeing denim this weekend.  What I wanted to ask you, if you have a moment, is how you avoided having the dye spread into the white spots on your husband's leaf shirt - did you use thickener?  I have the same question on your pipetted mandala - did you thicken the dyes so the spots wouldn't spread into each other?  

For the leaf shirt, I used unthickened dyes, sprayed with a light hand, using the fine mist setting on an inexpensive hand sprayer, probably one I bought at the local drugstore. The fine drops of dye were small enough to spread only a little. I had to turn the shirt over to apply dye to the other side, because the dye did not soak through the shirt. (When spraying dyes or paints, be sure to wear a face mask to avoid breathing any droplets of dye, which can produce serious allergies.)

On the mandala, again I used unthickened dyes, but applied very small drops of dye solution by hand from a dropper. The drops made very small spots even when they had spread as much as they were able to, due to their small volume. The dropper I used was a laboratory automatic micropipette. These are too expensive to buy for this purpose (I had them already for other reasons), but you might be able to make very small droplets with a plastic disposable pipette, smaller than you can make with a regular eyedropper. Alternatively, you might use a small-volume syringe with a blunt tip in place of the usual needle.

Here's a link to a site with pictures of the sort of pipettes I'm suggesting. (I have not ordered from this company and am using them only for an illustration.) You can often find disposable transfer pipettes sold in small lots on eBay.

Pia Fish posted on the Dye Forum about using small syringes to measure  dye, see this link. Although her posting concerns only the measurement of dye, it's also an excellent solution to the problem of how to dispense small drops.

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