Muku Mania: a documentation of the progress of my BFA senior thesis project at PNCA

For my senior thesis at The Pacific Northwest College of Art, I will be exploring the theme of narrative through the creation of a line of products. By placing a quirky and lovable character into context and providing an array of applications, each item will appeal to my target audience through light-hearted and innovative design.


Thursday, March 3, 2011

Hand Dyed Fabric and sample T-shirts!




I used Procion MX Fiber Reactive Dyes and soda ash that I bought from Art media in SW Portland to hand dye my 100% cotton fabric and 100% cotton T-Shirts. I bought the fabric from Mill End Fabrics in SE Portland and the shirts from Fred Meyer in N Portland. I also ordered some more fancy t-shirts from cheaptees.com that I will be dying soon. I'm really glad I dyed the cheap t's from Fred Meyer first because it was a bit of an experiment. I tried to get a gradient from dark to light with the dye, but it only really reads well in the avocado color. This is partially because I did this color last so I learned from experience and also because it is a darker color and the details are more noticeable. The Robin's egg blue fabric is too light and subtle of a color, I think I will try two different shades of light blue next time to achieve the gradient effect. The gold turned out okay, but I didn't mix the dye well enough and it ended up staining some of the fabric darker in tiny spots. I'm sure I will get it just right when I go to dye the nicer shirts that I bought.

4 comments:

  1. This is so great! I am sure your nicer shirts will turn out perfect! ;)

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  2. I ordered a couple XL shirts, but you're right I should buy some XXL shirts as well! Thanks guys!

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  3. ps, I just finished ironing all of the fabric and shirts! They are sooo wrinkled in these pics

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