Thursday, August 16, 2007

A "Trees" T-Shirt In The Making

When I was at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair in Crystal Lake, IL, someone asked if I had any t-shirts that had the kind of patterning that I call "Trees" on it. I had to tell her I didn't. But when I got home I figured out how I might get that kind of patterning on a t-shirt.
Here is what I did:

First, I unrolled steel wool pads and put them inside the t-shirt, in the bust area. After adding some salt and water, I gathered up that area and wrapped copper wire very tightly around it.

For the set up I put the shoulders down on the tray so the water would wick a certain way. I let the bottom of the t-shirt fall down into the tray. Not trusting that there would be enough iron liquor to dye the shoulders and the bottom of the t-shirt I sprinkled some rust dust on the bottom of the shrit. (not shown) It has been standing in this position for several days in the rain. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be cooperative enough so I can rinse it out. Can't wait to see what I got!!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I really love your work Lois, can we buy it in the UK?

Lois Jarvis said...

Yes!!! I have shipped several copies to the UK already. Follow the directions for International Orders on the "Order Form" page at Rust-Tex.com.

http://rust-tex.com/index.html