Inner Child; Tie Dye Style

I don't think that people ever really grow out of the childhood stage, they simply mask it with the ideas and attributes of adulthood. See, people don't want to grow up, sure they want to do adult things, but most people will say that there favorite memories are those of when they were kids. The lack of responsibility, and the act of not caring is so present during the childhood years, and people often go through life chasing after the same thing. Now mess isn't always a bad thing. I've come to realize that perhaps the reason kids enjoy tie dye so much is because of the mess factor, the joy of being able to throw around brilliant colors and create a messy little masterpiece without any objections from your parents. That's a dream right? Well after experimenting with tie dye myself, I've realized that I love it now just as much as I did when I was a little kid, hence my rambling about childhood and adulthood. In the book there is a passage about "the art of tie dye" and it relates to what I've been explaining. It talks about how Tie dye can essentially release your inner child. I may be analyzing this too deep, but this passage made an enormous amount of sense to me. Tie dye and all of its wonderful colors helps you reach the inner child that everyone has inside them.

This time I decided to take a more reckless approach to the shirt. Rather than using any sort of order I chose to attack the shirt with color. I sprayed on the color chaotically, of course creating a huge mess. the shirt seemed very saturated, unlike the first one. When I first tried this, the outcome of the shirt had a lot of white left on I, and although it still looked nice, I wanted it to have more color and zest. in order to improve on the color of the shirt, I went a tad bit crazy, and I didn't hold back with the color. Before I let loose with the color I chose a design; scrunch. Essentially you bunch it up, put rubber bands on randomly, and your done. This technique is fun because you have no idea what your final product will be. "Multiple bright colors can yield exciting results, or a subtle, refined look can be achieved by choosing a monochromatic pallet" (Simon-Alexander, 75). Personally I enjoy bright colors, perhaps that is reflecting my personality, or perhaps it has no meaning, but none the less I chose a variety of bright colors to create my masterpiece with. So my t-shirt was bunched, rubber bands applied, and dye ready; this is where it got fun. I haphazardly picked up each color and squirted away. It was brilliantly colorful, the whole shirt was infused with the brightness and beauty of those four simple colors. Its quite astonishing in fact how beautiful something as simple as color can be. I was done, and I was proud. My shirt was messy, colorful, and beautiful. I set it aside and waited over night for the color to process.

It was the next day and I was excited to get my shirt in the wash and be able to view the final product. After all of this I feel as though my second dying experience was better than the first. My overall shirt was more colorful, and in my opinion better looking, There was  less of a mess, and honestly this shirt was a lot more fun to create that the last one. I honestly recommend tie dye to anyone who is feeling creative or wants to connect with their inner child again. I have had a great experience tie dying and I'm excited to do more shirts in the future.

If you were to design a tie dye shirt, how would you design it?