If you recall, I tried one earlier as seen here, but it came out too hippie-ish. Again, nothing wrong with hippie-ish, it just wasn't the effect I was going for. And if you recall too, as linked in that previous post above, I was going by this tutorial I saw on Pinterest.
After forever and a day of peeling the plastic off the back of the painter's tarp (seriously, like over an hour and a half!), I plotted my new attempt.
This time I soaked the daylights out of the fabric since I wanted more of a watercolor effect rather than a tie-dyed t-shirt effect. I opted to fold in pleats like the tutorial person had done and after that, I doused it with more water again.
Next up, I chose to put the dye directly on the fabric, as opposed to on top of the ice as last time, thinking the melting ice would carry the dye through better if the dye were under it. This time too, I was more judicious about the quantity of dye plus was more methodical about the way I sprinkled it on there, distributing in more of a linear pattern. After the dye, a tad more water was dribbled on and then came the ice.
As you can see, I wrapped that garbage bag around the fabric again as it did help keep it bundled and in one shape.
Last time I was over at Twitchy's place, there were these cardboard tube pieces in the wood bins, so I grabbed one thinking it would help channel the ice.
A few more dousings of water through the top over the ice to get things in motion and I walked away for the night.
Next day....
I gotta admit, I got a little excited here as the colors looked great.
So. Heh. It is much better than the first try.
Although, turns out, as you can see, I was overzealous with the water and the pigments kinda got washed out and away. That was a bummer. There are spots where the color is strong and it looks good but the washed out is too washed out, or not dyed at all even.
I'm thinking, once my ice bin fills back up again, I may do an over-dye attempt, see if I can get a bit more color into the whole thing overall and get stronger pigment colors.
I will say, the fact that my newly repaired ice bin has not replenished practically any ice is giving me irritating pause. I cannot say I will be excited if we have to call the repair guy back out yet again. I love my fridge but after some cursory searching, I discovered that this particular one is notorious for ice maker problems. Greaaaat. Hailey loves ice cubes so it is imperative that it works.
If anything, this DIY dye art project is a lesson on how not all internet tutorials go swimmingly (ah, indirect water pun!) the first, or even the second time out.
This is how we learn, right?
So it's going to be one heck of a weekend around these parts. My brother and his family come to town for a visit. His birthday is Monday. Sunday is Father's Day. Tomorrow, Mike's cousin Amber gets married. This weekend is the first Puerto Rican festival of the season in Humboldt Park, one we have not been in this house for yet. It's always a madhouse but so far things are calm.
What else, I feel like I'm forgetting something....well, either way, busy busy busy. I'll be back next week with the window treatment for the swanky library as all the parts are in! Oh, unless next week is the week Mike is taking two days off of work. Huh, then I won't be around much at all. Oh, and Thursday is chemo number four. Wow. Busy.
Oh, and hey, Sirens got picked up for a season two, thirteen episodes this time, hence me needing to ramp up to a speedier pace as I'll likely be heading back to work here in the near future. Thanks to everyone who watched it and kept the ratings up!
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