Of Bottles and Brushes

My tie-dyeing squirt bottles often get scummy inside, especially if I've left dye in them for long periods (weeks to months) or used thickener, which gets moldy after a while. Mmmm, yum. I've never been happy with those spindly baby bottle brushes for cleaning them, and a toothbrush often can't get to those scummy spots.

However, I have a bag of old toothbrushes (I just hate throwing things away!), a candle, and some needle-nosed pliers, so it's time to make what I need.


I heat the neck or head of the toothbrush gently over the candle flame. I have to be careful not to get the bristles in the flame, or they will shrivel up and become useless. Occasionally the brush might catch on fire. If it does, I just blow it out quickly and keep working. I'm not worrying about prizes for beauty on this job!

Once the handle plastic has become soft, I grab the head and do the bending with the needle-nosed pliers. I hold the head in the desired position until the plastic has cooled enough to hold its shape.


I modified several brushes to fit different parts of the insides of my squeeze bottles. Here are the resulting brushes. They come in very handy!


If you try this, be sure to work in a safe, well-ventilated area (I did it on the stove with the hood fan turned on full) and remember to wear your eye protection!

The Importance of Protection

I helped run a tie-dye activity at my other daughter's Galileo camp today. One of the kids managed to get me with the dye today (not on purpose).

Here is a vivid demonstration on the importance of wearing eye protection (such as goggles, glasses, sunglasses, etc.) while doing tie-dye, even if you are not the one doing the dyeing (but especially if you are).


Here's the picture of where my face got hit by the dye. Good thing I was wearing my sunglasses! I wiped several drops of dye off of the sunglasses.


It's important to provide eye protection for the kids, even though it's a pain... the pain in the eyes is worse! And when you are working by yourself, you should still wear protection: squirts happen!

Happy--and safe--dyeing!