Spider fix!

[brixter]

I've read in at least a few posts here that I'm not the only dyer who is troubled by uneven spider dyes. I think I might have found the answer! As Zeppenwolf pointed out the pattern becomes more distorted as it travels through the different layers in the shirt which always left me with one side I liked a lot and the reverse side which just ruined the whole shirt. Here's what I tried just a few hours ago...... turn the shirt inside out, then take one of the sleeves and pull it through the other sleeve- making sure to get the seams at the shoulder and under the sleeve aligned. Grab the top of the sleeve and the collar and the thing almost folds itself in half...the difference being that the front and back of the shirt are now inside and the front side is folded so one half directly touches the other half and the back side is folded likewise. I tied it as you would any spider shirt and applied the colors to both sides then I sprayed the black dye on both sides from a small pump spray bottle. I'm sure brushing thickened black dye on both sides would work just as well. I couldn't stand waiting until tomorrow to see how it worked so I microwaved the shirt.....just wanted to see how the pattern appeared. Eureka! Both sides are symetrical with very close to even spider legs. The front of the shirt is slightly different than the back of the shirt since they were separated but the difference is small and since you can't look at both sides at the same time who cares? I'll post pics when it's dry.

[brixter]

Here's a spider shirt folded like I explained in the previous post. I'm now folding all the designs that get folded in half this way. It seems they all benefit and both sides are almost totally symetrical! I hope the explanation was clear enough, it's not at all hard to do and I'm wondering why I didn't think of it years ago!

[brixter]

This is the back side of the same spider shirt. You'll notice the pattern is slightly different from the front side but it's not much so and the pattern is better since both halves of this side match. I'm STOKED!

[colorfulsteve]

that turned out really nice. good job

[brixter]

At the risk of beating a dead horse I'm going to add to the spider making thread.....I really like this pattern now that I figured out how to make both sides of the shirt symetrical and now I've discovered a way to make them faster!. I recently took prescoured ( don't skip this step) dry shirts and tied them as described in the previous post. i placed lemon yellow dry dye powder in one salt shaker, mixing red dry powder in a second shaker, and mixing blue ( cobalt blue if Dharma I think)) dry powder in the third shaker. I slightly dampened the disc shaped tied shirt with some water then shook yellow dye on half the shirt. Overlapping one third of the yellow I shook mixing red on half the shirt then overlapping one third of both the yellow and red I shook on the blue dye. This process leaves you with a shirt with wedges of yellow, orange, red, purple, blue and green. I filled a squirt bottle with soda ash water and used this to wash the dye into the folded shirt- flip, repeat the process then paint on premixed black dye with a foam brush. The colors came out brilliant and because the secondary colors are mixes of the primaries they blend very nicely with them. I'll post a picture soon! Peace!

[ktaltre]

I missed this thread when it was first started.
Picked it up today with your new post, Brixter, and had to think about the fold.
Had a wet shirt waiting for me this afternoon and followed your folding directions - huh!
Yes, that way of folding in half is a good trick!
I think TieDyeJudy mentioned pulling one sleeve into the other just recently, but it didn't resonate with me at the time.
Brixter, what kind of tie material do you use for your spirals/spiders?
I've been using rubber bands for spirals, but string or sinew for everything else.
And I like your "new" way of applying the dye.
You are wearing a dust mask?  When you sprinkle the dye?
And, do you always tie dry?
k. taltre

[brixter]

ok...here it is....