Tutorial: Folded/tied & disperse-dyed shibori (pictorial)

Here's another sample i did for class, creating a striped effect with discharge dyeing. "Discharge dyeing" essentially means, removing color from fabric so that the bound/obscured/obfuscated areas retain the original dark hue and the rest of the fabric exposed to the bath loses intensity and saturation. You can do this with various chemicals, including household bleach. I used a 3:1 water/Clorox solution in hot water.

( instructional photos past the cut! )

Tutorial: Rubberizing shoes and boots for the stage, Barge method (pictorial)

Rubberizing the soles of boots and shoes for stage productions is one of those recurring tasks that fall to the crafts department. A theatre company can save literally hundreds of dollars by rubberizing in-house rather than sending shoes out to cobblers for this service, provided there's a craftsperson on staff who can do it properly.

In this photographic tutorial, I will describe one process for rubberizing using the industrial solvent-based contact adhesive, Barge. Barge has been widely used in the shoemaking industry for years, but is a known carcinogen, so extreme safety precautions are required in its use. Theatrical safety experts have recently been urging the use of an adhesive known as Synthetic Latex 1812 as a less-toxic substitute for applications in which one would otherwise use Barge. I have just obtained some 1812 and will be conducting some future experiments on its usefulness in rubberizing--look for a forthcoming post soon!

For now though, 1812 is far from a universally-used substance in this application, and many shops do still use Barge for rubberizing. Thus, I'll write up the Barge process here first!

( How to rubberize boots with Barge in 11 helpful photographs... )