Journal: Tie Dye & Silk Screening

How to do it?

Tie Dye = First, get a white, clean fabric. Second, tie it with some rubbers around the fabric according to your design. (Tying the rubbers will cause an uneven dye on your fabric) The place where you put the rubbers will not be colored by the dye. Third, you dye each part of the section that you had separate with the rubbers that surrounds it. (Only if you want your fabric to have different colors in each section) Dye it one by one in different dye colors each.

Silk Screening = To do silk screening, first you need to prepare the screens that had been arrange according to the colors of design you want to make. Second, put the different color paint above each screen, also according to the color that you want for each design that had been arranged to the screen. Third, you make the paint even in every section of the screen that you’re using with a flat board and prepare the fabric under the screen. Fourth, pull and slide the flat board across the screen. Fifth, let it dry, and then to do the other part of the design, you put the screen on top of the fabric again (make sure it’s in the same position like the screen before), after that you do all the steps all over again until you’re done with your design.

Materials & Tools Needed?

Tie Dye = A clean fabric, color dyes, rubbers

Silk Screening = Screen, a flat small board, a clean fabric, paint, a sticky place where you can put your fabric on so your fabric won’t slip and your design won’t be ruined because of the misplacement of each parts of your design.

Tips to be successful?

Tie Dye =
- Tie the rubber around the fabric neatly as the rubber that surrounds the fabric will block the dye from coming and dyeing the fabric.
- I recommend to use different and bright colors so your fabric will be more attractive.

Silk Screening =
- Spread the paint evenly.
- When pulling the board towards you, push it down evenly so when the paint goes to the fabric, it will also be even.

What did you learn from the activity?

Tie Dye = From this activity, I learned that doing tie dye can also use more than one color. It is done by dyeing only one color to each section that had been separated by the rubbers that surround the fabric. (It kind of creates a circle)

Silk Screening = I learned that doing silk screening is hard and takes quite a time too. It’s not really easy as the power used to push and pull the board across the screen must be even. Also, the screen must be prepared first. From this activity too, I learned that silk screening does not relate anything with silk. Instead, it only relates with paint, screen, fabric, and board.

How would you do it differently if you do again?

Tie Dye = I’ll do this tie dye carefully and neatly as the one that really matters in the process of tie dyeing is actually only the wrapping of rubbers around the fabric and dyeing it carefully on each of the color dye.

Silk Screening = I’ll do it differently next time by making the paint even in every side of the board and also push it evenly so the paint could get to the fabric evenly too. This is because the one that I did last time, the paint that goes to my shirt isn’t even throughout the design. Some parts have thick layers of pain on it and some don’t.