There are as many different ways to tie-dye as there are to cook an egg. Unfortunately, the average American is familiar with only the simple rubber-band style popularized in the sixties and seventies.
The process we use is based on ancient African tie-dye, which utilized various forms of string including gut and sinew, and developed along side batik and other forms of fiber art. Japanese shibori techniques have also influenced our artwork. In addition, we incorporate many new techniques that we've developed entirely on our own over the past 10 years of full-time creation.
Our process is considerably more time-consuming than the more standard methods, but it increases the diversity of patterns tremendously, and offers the artist much more control over the finished product. We believe that tie-dyeing this way can be approached as fine art, more refined and creative than the more basic arts-and-crafts.
First, the fabric is washed and dried at least twice to remove oils, sizing and other chemicals that hinder the absorption of dye. Next, it is soaked in a strong soda ash solution, wrung out, and dried completely without rinsing, so that deposits of dry soda ash are left behind in the fibers to activate the dye later on. This completes the pre-treating phase.
 |
The next step is the design phase, in which the fabric is laid flat and the desired pattern is visualized. With a marker that washes away later, the main lines making up the pattern are sketched onto the fabric, and any other points of reference are marked. |
| The tying phase is really the cornerstone of our process. The string we tie with is artificial sinew, which is used most often by leather crafters. The pattern is achieved by delicately and precisely folding the fabric into small pleats according to the marker lines. Other, undrawn aspects and details are also folded in. The fabric is then wrapped very tightly with artificial sinew to hold it in this exact position, and also to close the pores between individual fibers either fully or partially. This stops or slows the movement of liquid dye through specific parts of the fabric. |  |
 |
This brings us to the dyeing phase, in which fiber-reactive dye is applied drop-by-drop with a syringe while the tied piece is held in a gloved hand. This enables the artist to rotate the piece in three dimensions, using gravity to fine-tune control over the dye movement. The cups of dye at our dye station contain only primary colors and black. All shades are mixed in the syringe, "on-the-fly". This offers unlimited color variation, as well as the ability to incorporate minute shade changes and techniques such as incremental shading. |
| Once the piece is saturated with liquid dye, it enters the finishing phase. First, it is left for at least 24 hours in a warm place so that the dye can complete its chemical reaction with the fabric and soda ash. Next, it is unwrapped, still wet, and submersed immediately in cold water. Finally, it is washed twice more in very hot water to remove the excess dye. |  |
The entire process (excluding the 24-hour reaction time and the wash cycles) takes anywhere from one to three hours for each adult t-shirt, and longer for most tapestries. The wide range of variation is due to the fact that a very complex pattern can take five or six times as long in the tying phase as simpler patterns.