More Low Water Immersion Designs

I just can't get over the child-like fascination I have with seeing the results of a Low Water Immersion experiment. The result is always a pleasure, never a disappointment, and more often than not results in something worthy of adding to our www.TieDyedHippy.com website for sale.

Today I am using shades of purple and a weak fuschia I think. I have noticed that I have some favorite color combinations and I have to be careful not to use them all the time, lest our wares be only shades that appeal to me.

I have 1 hour exactly before I have to get my son from the bus stop, so let's get started...

First I spin some spirals into a Hanes Men's Large t-shirt that has been prewashed and is still damp.

 Next, I lift it up using magic and slide it into the bucket crammed down into the bottom. This happens to be a 2 gallon bucket.

Next, I apply the dyes that I just mixed but didn't photo-document. A weak fuschia, a light purple and dark purple:

Then I let all that sit in the bucket for long enough to upload these photos, crop them write the accompanying text including this paragraph, before I move on to the next step. (This took about 10-15 min.)

Then the soda ash I have pre-mixed that I keep in a 1 gal. milk jug gets poured on. Enough to only barely (or not quite) submerge the shirt. Hence the "low water" part of the method title. heh

Now, let the magic commence! I know it doesn't look like much in the bucket, but let me tell ya!... something amazing is happening in there.

Now we leave it to go run some errands and maybe when I come back I'll poke it with a gloved finger a couple of times to interfere with the process going on and to change the destiny of the final design. I do that because that's just the kind of meddlesome person that I am. :P

Next post we will have rinsed, washed and dried the shirt above and I will show you how it came out. Unlike a lot of How-To's for tie dye that just seem to show you the before pictures and a suspiciously different "after" shot that only tells me they didn't like the direction the original sample was taking. I know that we all do duds sometimes and it can be very disappointing, but we live and learn.

This is the first multiple spiral shirt I have done, as I am a big fan of the one huge dramatic spiral, but every now and then you have to change things up and live on the edge. This is my "hang 10" for the day.

Stay tuned for the finished shirt...

New Found Love of Low Water Immersion Dyeing

Tie-dye is a passion, I concede. The planning of the design, the execution of the folds, the accidental splashing of the dark dye in the area you had previously reserved for yellow. It's all part of what drives me in my quest to create the most awesome wearable artwork.

But I have temporarily forsaken my roll of flat sinew and in it's place I have embraced the lowly bucket. What an concept! Scrunch, twist, roll, wad, swirl or otherwise abuse a piece of cloth or clothing and jam it down into the bottom of the bucket. Squirt, pour, dribble, drip or spray a tint or two of Procion MX dyes on top. Wait a bit and add some soda ash water to not quite cover the cloth and let stew.

The patterns and intricate detail that emerge after 1-24 hours are just breath taking. I could not have gotten this effect with paint on canvas if I tried. Yet, with minimal effort, some dye, water and a bucket, the beauty creates itself.

Here's the finished piece for sale on our site. The lucky product adorned with the beauty above is a Junior size 7 pair of shorts: