Mandala
Squares and eight-pointed stars
March 23, 2003
This is actually the back of the shirt shown in example 21. I placed an aluminum
baking sheet between the two layers to prevent
bleed-through.
Aluminum must not be allowed to contact damp
soda ash, as the high pH degrades aluminum badly (as does a
low pH). Though exposure to the dry soda ash in this case
appears to have done no harm, even this should not be
attempted with a baking sheet you plan to keep. Wet soda ash
in contact with aluminum may ruin not only the aluminum,
but also any fabric in contact with it.
How I did it
I made use of a large plastic drafting triangle to
help draw the pencil guidelines for this design. I drew
concentric circles as guides to then draw squares which
formed the basis for the eight-pointed stars.
Here is a picture taken partway through the process:
As on the previous page, I used an Eppindorf automatic
pipettor (non-electronic,
mid-1980s model) to drip carefully metered droplets, from 5 to
200 microliters each, depending on the size of dye dot
desired, onto a cotton knit shirt which had previously been
soaked in a solution of 1 cup (250 ml) of soda ash in 1
gallon (4 liters) of water, then line-dried. The dyes were
Procion MX type dye, mixed at approximately 4 teaspoons (20
ml), by volume, per cup of water, along with 1 tablespoon
(15 ml) of urea per cup of water; more was used for black
and turquoise.
I dyed the background after dyeing the mandala. This was, in
my opinion, a mistake. In the future I will dye the
background first, then fill in the mandala, to avoid messing
up any of the fine details of the mandala itself.
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Page created: March 23, 2003
Last updated: March 23, 2003
Downloaded at: Tuesday, December 10, 2024