Celtic Sarongs

designs in material?

ive always wondered how you put a picture or design into a fabric then tie dye it. like celtic sarongs. how they have a celtic image with tie dye around it. how do you put the image or design into teh fabric??

Public Comments

1. Dye won't adhere if there is oil or wax there. Paint the design onto the fabric with melted wax, then dye it. When it's dyed, place it between layers of paper towel and iron repeatedly to get the wax out.
2. There are two ways to do this. First is by masking off the design from the fabric, then dying. There are several ways of doing this, wax is one. Wax tends to crackle and can be difficult to remove, especially for beginners. Silk dyers use a liquid masking and or resist agent, usually water based gutta, a rubbery compound -and it's painted on the fabric, it's flexible and it doesn't let the dye penetrate the fibers where ever it's been placed. The masking liquid is washed out after dying. Sometimes more masking liquid is used as an outline and the symbol is dyed using a paint brush the masking liquid prevents the dye from bleeding into the tie dye area. I recommend water based gutta over solvent based resists and wax for any type of dye resist work, easier, less toxic and more consistent results. The second method is dye first, then use a thicker paint over the dyed fabric. Sometimes the logos and other designs and patterns are silk screened over the dyed fabric, sometimes they are painted on with fabric paint. The thicker inks and paints don't bleed like dyes and require no masking and no washing out. Dharma Trading has information and supplies for many different methods of dying, dye resists, masking, painting and silk screening. http://www.dharmatrading.com/