Art 499 | drewtsimmons

I did my last 499 project on dying three dimensional objects. 2 of these objects were dyed after they were made 3D, and one was purposefully made 3D after dying. The two that were made 3D prior to dying were wool. They were felted objects made via needle felting. They both turned out fantastic. The 3rd object was paper. I used tracing paper to see how the dye would take to a transparent paper. It turned out great. The colors in all three are vibrant. I used the same black and orange color palette as the last project. I gained inspiration from a blog about dying wool on a toy website called handmadefelttoys.com. This shows how to dye using food coloring and was essentially the same process, minus having to wash them with dishsoap prior to dying.

This project was based on tie dye techniques. I wanted to make sure I used a reliable and easy to learn source for this assignment. Prochemical.com had a genius set of slides which took you step by step through the processes of making certain dye techniques on fabric. One dye technique I used was a pleat technique. This turned out to work really well. I was very impressed by the outcome. Another technique I used was the folding technique, where you make one fold and then tie it off, and repeat this process as many times as desired. I did it twice and the dye looks amazing. It was truly my favorite piece that I made from this collection. I did my third sampling on a t-shirt. This was combining the circle and bunching techniques. The ombre effect it had on the shirt looks fantastic. The colors I chose were orange and black. But I didn’t make the black too dark, as I had a specific look in mind. The collection was inspired by burning coals, and the colors that are present while they are burning. That smokey unclear color mix of grey and black is achieved by only letting the dye sit on it overnight, and by only doing one coat.