Playing with YouTube

I recently did a corporate team-building activity at a local company's "Oktoberfest" event for their employees. Since there were lots of participants (they had ordered 150 shirts, and had a few left over), I got lots of help from a lot of great volunteers who are also really into tie-dye (thanks, everyone!). The activity seemed to be quite a hit!

I took home the leftover shirts and dyed them for myself and a few employees who didn't make it to the event. You can see pictures of those shirts here on my Picasa album site.

2009-09-22 Tie-dye for Oktoberfest

Is That Thing On?

I've been thinking about doing tie-dye demonstration videos to put onto YouTube, and I got one of the volunteers to video me while I was demonstrating how to do a couple of the fold patterns. The videos are completely rough and unedited, and there is polka music in the background! Who would have thought that polka makes a great soundtrack for tie-dye? Anyhow, I'm not sure when or if I'll get around to doing them the "right" way, so I figured I'll put them on YouTube for now just as they are. After all, I describe myself as a "recovering perfectionist"--where "done" is better than "perfect". I'd say these are worth lots of perfectionism recovery points!

In this video, I show how to fold an X pattern.



Here I demonstrate folding a diagonal stripe pattern.



Enough About Me...

Some of my faithful audience members have pointed out that they haven't seen my faithful hound Lacey lately. Here she is:


Amazingly, Lacey knows which shirts are the ones for me, and she just stands on those. Either that, or she just knows that she looks best with a backdrop of blues and greens!


Playtime with a cardboard tube.

Mandalas are great backdrops!

Inspiration All Around

Inspiration is often an elusive beast. I can sometimes go for months without doing very much tie-dye, just because I don't feel inspired by anything new to try out. And then there are other times when I'll be tying and/or dyeing every day or two, because I just can't wait to see the next set of results.


I get a lot of inspiration from other people, as many artists do. My friend with the tie-dyed couch has been a great inspiration lately, partly because of what he has been trying out himself with his own tie-dye (he's big on marbles), and partly because of his sheer "no matter what, it's gonna turn out great!" joie-de-tie-dye. I wish he could bottle that stuff!

Another friend gets inspiration for her oil paintings, and moral support to just keep working at it, from groups of other artists online (see her blog for more inspiration). The Internet has really made it easier to find support and inspiration from far-flung places--you don't have to host a salon in Paris anymore.

When you need an inspirational boost, books and videos can really be useful. Both the video "The Art of Tie-Dye" with Michael Fowler, and the video "Learn How to Tie Dye: Complete 3 Volume Set" with Tom and Martine, show some really inspirational pieces, even if you don't want to just follow their "cookbook" steps. The "Tie Dye, Back By Popular Demand" book by Virginia Gleser is an inspirational starting point too. Dharma provides even more inspiration on their website with their "Featured Artists" section.

But for complete "this is why I do it" inspiration, kids are the best. My daughters enjoy wearing tie-dye, and are quite happy to suggest what they'd like to add to their wardrobes! One of them likes to dye her own, and both of them are always happy to "adopt" shirts, sheets and other tie-dyed treasures that emerge from my work area in the garage.

First graders, Girl Scout troops, and other groups of kids are also good. The abundant energy and the wild abandon with which kids dye their pieces just charges the entire atmosphere. It's hard not to absorb their enthusiasm and want to dive in to do a few more pieces of my own.


While it's a lot of work, some of the volunteers (including me) who do the annual first-grade tie-dye project with the local school almost fight over getting to take the shirts home to wash en masse. Getting to look at all those wild shirts at once really gets the creative juices going.


But that's enough for now. I've got to go get my next batch in the wash...

What Do I Need and Where Do I Get It? Tie-Dye Resources

It's always nice to have some lists handy of where to get stuff.

Dyes

• The key thing here: if you are doing tie-dye on cotton (or some other natural fibers), use Procion-MX dyes (several suppliers offer their own brands of Procion-MX dyes). Never never never use "all-purpose" dyes like RIT that are available in supermarkets and craft stores.
• In case you're wondering, I get all my dyes, chemicals, and most of my supplies (squeeze bottles, etc.) from Dharma Trading Company (Dharma is one of the main suppliers for professional textile crafts. They are in San Rafael, CA, so if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, even standard shipping only takes a couple of days if you order from their website).

White Stuff

• I get most of my white stuff from Dharma. Those doggie shirts are soooo cute!
• Your local Goodwill store is a great place to get white things you can't find at Dharma. Who cares if there is a little stain on it?
• Watch stores like Target and Mervyn's for end-of-season sales on basics like white kids' shirts (turtlenecks, the latest beaded-neckline styles, and so on). Even if it's not on sale, there are often cheap white clothes available that will look great tie-dyed!
• IKEA is a great source for white stuff for the home, especially couches with slipcovers! It's a good place to get white sheets, too.

Books

Some of my favorite books on tie-dye:

• "Tie Dye To Die For & Batik You Can't Resist!" available from Dharma
• "Tie Dye, Back By Popular Demand" by Virginia Gleser available from Dharma or (sometimes) Harmony (she is the Harmony matriarch)

Videos/DVDs

Both of these DVDs are really useful and well worth getting.

• "Learn How to Tie Dye: Complete 3 Volume Set" available from Dharma or Amazon
• "The Art of Tie-Dye"available from Dharma or Amazon

Links

See the blog sidebar for my constantly-growing collection of useful links.