Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tye-Dye Unit - Student Art


A really fun unit for my beginning 3-d students, to reinforce the color theory unit that we studied, was tye-dye using cold water Rit Fabric Dyes (I added salt and vinegar as mordants to each dye-bath to help absorb and set colors). I show them traditional tye-dye from the late 60's and early 70's and then some more modern techniques as well. And then the kids came up with new ideas I've never seen before. It's a learning experience for me too!

We start off the trials on white paper towels (pictured above) and then we go next to squares of bleached white muslin cloth (100% cotton, below). Also this year because my 7th graders were running 3 days ahead of schedule I let them try out some paper towel samples as well (pictured directly above).

The cloth pieces above will be used at a later date for the front and back panels of an appliquilt assignment the beginning 3-d kids will be tackling (below).

Then both groups had time for some extra credit dyeing where they brought in 100% cotton t-shirts and really enjoyed themselves (below). We ended up with many striking pieces from both groups!

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