Art

Naturally, I had no desire to spend any additional time in a car. And fortunately, our activities on Friday did not require any such thing!

Friday gave me my dabbling time in fabric and colors. Mom had lots of white cotton doggie bandanas on hand, so we set to work. First, we tie-dyed a few. Now, not having done this before, it was harder than I’d expected. I felt like I was flying blind a little; I really didn’t know what it’d look like when done. But I still tried three different ones, using a different design and colors on each.

See, to tie-dye this way, you fold/twist/tie then pour on the different colors in different places. Then you wrap it in newspaper then in a plastic bag, and it has to sit overnight. In other words, no, this is hardly something for anyone wanting immediate results.

But our tie-dye done and wrapped up, we then turned to marbling. Mom had shown me this before, and the few things I have that are marbled have met many oohs and ahhs. But what I never knew was that you could marble things other than scarves! See, I really just don’t wear scarves, so the “ahh” of the marble effect was often lost on me. Sure it looked cool, but it wasn’t me---the “it” being the scarf, not the design.

But now! Ah ha! I’ve learned you can marble other things! Our goal on Friday was doggie bandanas, so that’s what we worked with then. And with each one, I learned a little more. I made a couple with a great teal color, swirled with a little black, gold, and silver---so Howard, of course, can be properly dressed for fall football Sundays in Jax. ;-) (When you put them on him, him being a black dog, it looks fabulous!) We also tried to make some Aggie ones, but making a maroon proved to be a little tricky. We finally got a good one, and another dried to a great shade. Maybe Mom can get a lot of a good maroon color and market those over in College Station.

Saturday we got to see the results of the tie dye. I was really happy with the design of one, but the color didn’t turn out what I wanted. What should have been a black and orange (yes, for Halloween) turned out a deepest darkest greenish black and yellow. Still, the design was cool, and I could see how to tweak it just a little for improvement. I learned also by looking at the other two. One of those too, though, turned out a different color than expected. But Mom’s still experimenting with all of this too.

Having done all of this, though, I had the bug. And so the other night, I got online and made an order for more things to dye and marble. I ordered several market bags---maybe if I make my own grocery bags, I’ll be better about using them! (I really do want to get in a better habit of doing so—especially now that I’ll take a local newspaper, and I’ll have those bags to reuse to empty Sophie’s box.) I also ordered more doggie bandanas to make; Howard will be too cool. But also, I really think Mom could find a market for these. We need to figure out more of the cost of the colors and how much time each takes, with the soaking in alum, printing the design, the cost of the water solution (but that’s reusable), and time to press and rinse. Once we get a little better at them, and figure out a cost, I think I need to send some of these we’re making out, with info for those folks’ friends to order more. We’ll see.

Ah, and I also ordered some silk wine-bottle size gift bags. How cool to take a bottle of wine to someone wrapped in a hand-made bottle bag?!

My order is being processed, and it should ship and be delivered this week. In the meantime, Mom’s experimenting with some canvas bags she had lying around. And so now, she’ll have a little time to learn more, and my order will be there so that when I get back there next Monday, we can color and print and such, and they’ll be ready on Tuesday before I head out on Wednesday! Sure, I have lots of guidance in the process, and a lot of it is the pure benefit of Mom’s experience and artistic talent, but I must say, there is something personally satisfying about making something so unique.