Tie Dyed Spiral - 90 Degree Edition

So, if you love tie dye - you probably love a spiral. Spirals and tie dye seem to go hand in hand. Most people I come in contact with envision a rainbow spiral the minute I mention tie dyeing. I do like a good rainbow spiral, but I truly think that spirals can be one of the most versatile tie dye designs. Tying a spiral is pretty straight forward, but dyeing it is where the fun comes in. I really enjoy experimenting with dye placement on spirals to see what cool outcomes I end up with. Here’s the video of the shirt that I’m discussing:

For this shirt I thought it would be interesting to try adding the colors in stripes at 90 degree angles from each other. Let me explain…I mixed up Turquoise and Dharma’s new color, Bluebird and applied them in horizontal stripes to the front of the shirt. I put the Turquoise right in the middle and then a stripe of Bluebird on either side followed by another stripe of Turquoise on the outside of that. Then I turned the shirt over and applied stripes of Plum from Dharma Trading Company and Strawberry from Custom Colours vertically in the same manner. So, the blue stripes and the purple and pink stripes were at 90 degree angles from each other.

Well, the end result was not exactly what I expected. This was my first time using the Bluebird, and though I love the way the color turned out - I didn’t expect it to totally overtake the Turquoise. I didn’t get quite the color contrast from the blue colors on the front that I wanted. Most of the Turquoise disappeared with the exception of a small bit right in the middle of the shirt and a faint line of it a little further out. I mixed the Bluebird according to the instructions, but it seemed a little thick when I applied it. It almost felt like slightly thickened dye. So, I think the application was probably the cause - I think I just oversaturated with the Bluebird since it was so thick. I still really like the shirt though. The blue, purple and pink color palette work really well together.

I’m also really excited that Dharma released Bluebird to take the place of Cerulean Blue. Cerulean was used in so many of the mixed dye colors. The last time I checked the Dharma Trading Company website, I noticed that they are starting to reformulate some of the colors that used Cerulean. I’m eager to order some of the reformulations in the future to see how they compare.