Paula Burch's All About Hand Dyeing

Mandala

Drip Dyed with tie dyed background

March 2003

Both of the pictures below link to larger copies of themselves.

picture
of a drip dyed peace symbol t-shirt calmer colors -back of same shirt

How I did it

I drew a peace sign on a plain prewashed white cotton t-shirt, which had been soaked in soda ash solution and then line-dried, using a pencil, ruler, compass, protractor and two sizes of dinner plates. Using a metered Eppendorf micropipette, I dripped small drops of dye, mixed with water and urea as in How to Dye, on the pattern. I allowed small amounts of dye to seep through from the front to the back of the shirt.

The next day, I rubber-banded the shirt with the peace signs at the center, and dyed the outer edges of the front, brighter sign (having first encased the center of the design in plastic for protection against stray drops of dye), and completely overdyed the back one. Since the weather was cool, I placed the shirt in a glass container, covered it tightly with plastic wrap, and microwaved at 20% power until the shirt was quite warm to the touch, about four minutes (times vary dramatically in various nmicrowaves, and fabric that is overheated in the microwave, past the point of dryness, will burn, so, if you try this yourself, be sure to check frequently to determine when the damp material is warm).


previous
page              next page


 Home Page     Hand Dyeing Top     Gallery    About Dyes    How to Dye    How to Tie Dye    How to Batik    Low Water Immersion Dyeing    Sources for Supplies    Book Reviews    Other Galleries    Groups    FAQs     Custom Dyers    Forum    Q&A blog    link here    search    contact me  

Page created: March 23, 2003
Last updated: March 23, 2003
Downloaded: Thursday, November 21, 2024