DESIGN PROCESS: Jellyfish Skirt and Paint Chip Collection
I did two creative things this weekend...one more creative and exciting than the other, in my opinion. I dyed a jellyfish motif skirt, and I gathered special supplies for some inexpensive tutorials.
Friday night, I added Tulip Cool Color Block to a white cotton tiered skirt, in the shape of a large jellyfish on the front. I let it dry overnight. Saturday morning I used most of what reminded of the product to create 4 baby jellyfish on the back of the skirt. The packaging says it's meant to be used with a special spray dye...but I ignored that, and insisted on experimenting with it. The product says it takes 1 hour to dry, but it took about 3. It finished drying after I brought it to a friends' house, where we ladies planned on dyeing various pieces of clothing.
After lunch, we selected which dyes out of the Tulip One-Step Tie Dye Kit, we wanted to use. The kit comes with easy to use squirt bottles that have different colors of powdered dye in them. We added water to the fill lines, as instructed. The instructions also mention the dye starts to lose color power after 45 minutes, but we didn't find this to be a problem in the 2 hours we used the chosen colors. Tulip has refill packs available for purchase, which is great, because the handy squirt bottles are reusable. Elizabeth and I got to dyeing our clothing, while Alex and Rachel used the Tulip Fabric Markers to draw on their shirts. I squirted on dye, and also used a wet paint brush to paint it on. Both worked great. I used a wet sponge brush to blend any needed areas. I used turquoise, purple and a dark pink dye. Unfortunately, the Cool Color Block started dissolving before I was ready for it to. It held up pretty well while I was working on the skirt. I splattered rubbing alcohol on the dyed skirt, to cause the dye to disburse. I sprinkled salt on it to also disrupt the dye. I couldn't what either really did. I rolled up the skirt, as instructed. After the 8 hr wait for the dye to set, the Cool Color Block had completely dissolved. I rinsed out and washed the skirt as instructed. I rinsed out the shirt that Alex has dyed after drawing on it, and left it to dry a bit on the side of the tub, while mine was washing.
This morning, I put my skirt into the dryer, and Alex's shirt into the washer. After my skirt was dry, I put her shirt in the dryer. I looked over my skirt, and determined the Cool Color Block dissolving before I could properly rinse it, caused some dye color not to fully take on the fabric. It caused faded areas and lack of definition in the areas it was applied. This is what I get for not following the suggestions on the package. Thankfully, I had a back up plan. I'm going to take watered down fabric paints and add that definition by hand. I'll probably do this some time this week.
In the afternoon, I ventured to Lowes and Home Depot in search of large paint chips to use for jewelry making projects. I got a ridiculous amount of them. They are free, and I never get asked what I'm doing with them. Thankfully, I spend a lot of money at Lowes through out the year. I don't shop at Home Depot very often, and they surprisingly had better (larger) paint chips. I got reds, purples, greens, a few blues, blacks, grays, whites, and many metal finishes. Home Depot had several textured metal finishes that will go great with the non-textured ones I got at Lowes. Both are about equal distance from my house and close to each other, so I was able to easily go to both stores before picking up Alex from a Girl Scouts meeting. When we got home, I split them into two bags, so I could easily identify where each paint chip came from.
I love using paint chips more than scrap book paper, because it's free and nice thick paper...which are both great things for this sort of jewelry project. I'll make something with a few of the paint chips, coming this week. I also plan on making a few more things with accompanying tutorials, out of the old gift cards, this coming week. Lots of jewelry projects that are cheap and easy...which is how I love my crafts. That is all for this weekend. Tomorrow, more creative stuff.
Friday night, I added Tulip Cool Color Block to a white cotton tiered skirt, in the shape of a large jellyfish on the front. I let it dry overnight. Saturday morning I used most of what reminded of the product to create 4 baby jellyfish on the back of the skirt. The packaging says it's meant to be used with a special spray dye...but I ignored that, and insisted on experimenting with it. The product says it takes 1 hour to dry, but it took about 3. It finished drying after I brought it to a friends' house, where we ladies planned on dyeing various pieces of clothing.
After lunch, we selected which dyes out of the Tulip One-Step Tie Dye Kit, we wanted to use. The kit comes with easy to use squirt bottles that have different colors of powdered dye in them. We added water to the fill lines, as instructed. The instructions also mention the dye starts to lose color power after 45 minutes, but we didn't find this to be a problem in the 2 hours we used the chosen colors. Tulip has refill packs available for purchase, which is great, because the handy squirt bottles are reusable. Elizabeth and I got to dyeing our clothing, while Alex and Rachel used the Tulip Fabric Markers to draw on their shirts. I squirted on dye, and also used a wet paint brush to paint it on. Both worked great. I used a wet sponge brush to blend any needed areas. I used turquoise, purple and a dark pink dye. Unfortunately, the Cool Color Block started dissolving before I was ready for it to. It held up pretty well while I was working on the skirt. I splattered rubbing alcohol on the dyed skirt, to cause the dye to disburse. I sprinkled salt on it to also disrupt the dye. I couldn't what either really did. I rolled up the skirt, as instructed. After the 8 hr wait for the dye to set, the Cool Color Block had completely dissolved. I rinsed out and washed the skirt as instructed. I rinsed out the shirt that Alex has dyed after drawing on it, and left it to dry a bit on the side of the tub, while mine was washing.
This morning, I put my skirt into the dryer, and Alex's shirt into the washer. After my skirt was dry, I put her shirt in the dryer. I looked over my skirt, and determined the Cool Color Block dissolving before I could properly rinse it, caused some dye color not to fully take on the fabric. It caused faded areas and lack of definition in the areas it was applied. This is what I get for not following the suggestions on the package. Thankfully, I had a back up plan. I'm going to take watered down fabric paints and add that definition by hand. I'll probably do this some time this week.
In the afternoon, I ventured to Lowes and Home Depot in search of large paint chips to use for jewelry making projects. I got a ridiculous amount of them. They are free, and I never get asked what I'm doing with them. Thankfully, I spend a lot of money at Lowes through out the year. I don't shop at Home Depot very often, and they surprisingly had better (larger) paint chips. I got reds, purples, greens, a few blues, blacks, grays, whites, and many metal finishes. Home Depot had several textured metal finishes that will go great with the non-textured ones I got at Lowes. Both are about equal distance from my house and close to each other, so I was able to easily go to both stores before picking up Alex from a Girl Scouts meeting. When we got home, I split them into two bags, so I could easily identify where each paint chip came from.
I love using paint chips more than scrap book paper, because it's free and nice thick paper...which are both great things for this sort of jewelry project. I'll make something with a few of the paint chips, coming this week. I also plan on making a few more things with accompanying tutorials, out of the old gift cards, this coming week. Lots of jewelry projects that are cheap and easy...which is how I love my crafts. That is all for this weekend. Tomorrow, more creative stuff.
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