Ice Dye - Updated

Some wet, some dried

So I was browsing Pinterest, as always, and was looking for new dye techniques.  I came across a few posts with some really pretty fabrics that were made using a technique called ice dying.  I decided that it would be a really suitable pattern for making bow ties, so I took a trip to my local craft store, ran into one of my aunts and one of my cousins there, got some necessary supplies, and got to work.  I ended up following this tutorial.

Just pretend like I rotated it.

This is my first time working with soda ash, so once I see how this turns out, I might consider investing in more from here on out.  I just wanted to use the normal storage tubs I always use, so I found this rubber basket thing that I decided to cut the bottom out of and I figured I would use that as a rack on top of the tub.

A long 20 minutes later...

After the fabric soaked in the soda ash, I dumped out the water and used the same tub.  I ultimately decided on scarlet, purple, and royal blue dye.  The tutorial said to use plastic spoons, but I couldn't find any since Mom rearranged the pantry, so I just used these little bathroom cups.

Clockwise from top: royal blue, scarlet, purple.

A quick trip to the kitchen for ice later, I was ready to start the fun part.

The setup

In retrospect, I probably didn't need to cut the basket apart, but it makes potential adaptation to a larger container easier.

About 5 minutes in

It's hard to believe, but somewhere under that ice that looks like charcoal is a piece of fabric about to have a lot of color thrust upon it.

I thought the melting ice looked really cool. 

Well, I have no idea how this is going to turn out.  I guess we'll find out in about 24 hours.

UPDATE

This is a second batch.

I ended up rinsing the first piece of fabric after about 16 hours because I panicked when I looked at it and saw a solid black lump.  I was worried that I used way too much dye and that it would be so dark that all the colors would blend together into some form of dark mass.  Once I washed it and let it air dry, I was pleasantly surprised.

The bottom left one is fully dry.

In the picture, the light purple one in the bottom left corner is the first piece I did.  The other three are still wet from being washed, so I'm looking forward to see how they look once they're dry.  I did let those sit for about 24 hours though, so the color had a little more time to saturate the fabric.  They may turn out a little lighter than what I would like, since I used about half the amount of dye in these than I did for the first one.  I look at them, and they remind me a lot of watercolor paintings.  I really like how this turned out, and will definitely be using this technique again in the future.

Directing a Show

Directing a show is probably the most challenging thing I've done so far, but it was also one of the most rewarding.

So the show I directed was Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play.  Instead of treating it like a serious retelling of the Hitchcock films, I decided that what I wanted to do was to give the audience a look behind the scenes into what happens during any production of any show.  Being an actor and former dancer, I realized that by the end of the show, my fellow actors and I have our own inside jokes and there's an entirely different story happening backstage.  I thought how unfortunate it was to the audience that they never get to see that, so I wanted to bring that on the main stage.  The fact that it was in the form of a 1940's radio show was just icing on the cake.

When it comes to the 1940's, the style of the day is very important.  While the gentlemen basically only had to wear a higher waistline for their pants, the ladies had a much more complicated costume scheme.  I had a specific idea in mind for what I wanted the jewelry and accessories to look like, and having a limited budget, I decided to make them.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of everything, but I did get most of them.

Painting white orchids lavender.

One of my actresses decided she wanted to portray a snooty Hollywood starlet type who, even though she never had a real gig, decided she was better than everybody else.  I lent her one of my own purple dresses, and I figured if anyone should sparkle, it would be her.  I used an iridescent purple watercolor on the inner bits of the orchids so they wouldn't all blend together.  I ended up giving her a set of pearls with AB finished crystals between each one to make sure she glittered with every movement.

Brooch and Bracelet

I attempted to hot glue a bead identical to the one in the bracelet to a ring back, but the glue didn't like the metal too much.  We found a way to make it work, but I forgot how we did it in all the general hecticness.

The "peach set" was another favorite of mine. I found these really pretty connector beads, but thinking they were too plain, hot glued a flattened bead cap to the center.  I made drops with pearls and used those both in the earrings and in the matching necklace.  I had intended to make a seashell brooch similar to this one, but time ran short on me.

 I also was interested in trying to make fake Bakelite.  Unfortunately, I didn't have access to colored resin, so I improvised with red polymer clay.  We didn't end up using it since the actress I made it for had her own set of beautiful diamond and pearl earrings.

As far as the set goes, I knew from the beginning I wanted a blue-based gray.  I think the most exciting part of being the director was knowing that I was able to make those decisions.  I was backstage for most of the show, so unfortunately, I wasn't able to get many pictures of the completed set.  I picked a few posters from popular movies to put on the walls.  I promised some pin-ups, so I made sure I included Ziegfeld Follies and Moon Over Miami in there.  I added in The Lodger since that was one of the plays in the show, and one of my personal favorite movies is The Great Dictator, so I didn't hesitate to get that one in there.

My wonderful production team.

I could go on and on about the leadership skills I learned, the patience I acquired, and the teamwork I helped throw together, but that might have to be its own separate post.  Meanwhile, have some assorted pictures from the show.  You can probably tell which ones were from dress rehearsal and which ones were from the actual show based on set dressings and people present.

I do have to say that at the end of the day, this was one of the best experiences of my life.

Cherry Blossom Bow Ties

For those of you who don't know, my favorite crafty pastime is making bow ties.  I've made so many different ones, and I've learned so many different dying techniques in the process.  I've learned how to dip dye, ombré, and tie dye.

A watermelon I'm quite fond of.

Tie dyed Mardi Gras puppy bow tie

I was thinking of things that I haven't tried yet, and I realized I haven't done much in the way of painting.  Inspired by the impending springtime, I thought I'd try my hand at painting some cherry blossoms.

I soaked a solid white tie in water to help the dye absorb better.

The first thing to do was to prepare a background.  I figured a nice light blue for the sky would be a good effect.  I ombréd the blue the same way I usually do.  First, I added a little bit of water to my little plastic tub and got a solid white bow tie nice and soaked.  Then, I took the tie out, and added a kettle full of boiling hot water.  I eyeballed roughly a half cup of salt, which nicely dissolved immediately.  I ended up adding 3 teaspoons of Aquamarine Rit Dye.

Note the vinyl gloves.  Learn from your mistakes, kids.  Especially when you have to keep your nails painted for four solid months because you accidentally dyed them purple while making tights.

I don't usually worry about the neck strap too much when I dye because it ends up being hidden under the shirt collar anyway.  I accidentally got some drops of concentrated dye on the tie, so I just decided that would be the darker side.  I didn't let the dye sit too long, since I wanted a nice light blue.  The color always turns out a little bit lighter once it dries, so I pulled it out when it was just slightly darker than what I wanted.

Fresh out the dye bath.

After rinsing in my bathroom sink, the dorm gods smiled down upon me and graced me with an available washing machine.  I live in a building made to house 150+ people, and there are only 4 washers.  One of them is currently broken.  This building was not planned particularly well.

Freshly washed, hanging out to dry.

Once it dried, it ended up fading to a beautiful light blue color.  It's always tricky figuring out exactly how long to leave the dye to set, especially when it dries so drastically different from the wet color.  I guess I just got lucky this time.

Perfect sky background color.

Next came the actual painting.  I have never done this before, so I figured a few practice branches and flowers on a test scrap of fabric would probably be a good idea.  Once I painted, I realized that since I was using so little paint on the fabric itself, I didn't worry about it bleeding through.  Even if it did, I could cover it up with an identical stroke on either side.

I decided on larger branches with dots instead of individual petals.

The best part about nature is that it rarely follows a straight line.  As a result, I could pretty much take the branches in any direction I wanted.

Branches that look like veins ready for petals.

On the test strip, I realized I like the look of red layered under pink petals, so I scattered dots along the branches in red first, then pink.  I added a few blowing in the wind, as well.

Ready for pink.

I'm not going for anything too terribly realistic, so there are a lot of petals floating around in space.  At first, I was reluctant to add the pink, since the red looked so good on its own.  Once I did though, I was quite pleased with the result.

The final product.

Hopefully within the next few days, the rain will subside enough to go outside and, with my lovely model Casey, take a few pictures in the sunlight so the colors will show up better.  He doesn't know about this yet, so that'll be fun.  It doesn't rain often in Florida, but when it does, it rains nonstop for 4 days.  At least it hasn't been colder than 61 degrees this week.

Check back eventually for updates with better pictures!  I'm not sure why I was so shaky this time around.

Winter Break Crafting

Probably my favorite thing about college is that the summer and winter breaks really are breaks.  There aren't any assignments given, there's no extra reading that I have to do, and I finally get to sit back and do things that I want to do.  And, since it's me, I made things.

When I was little, my mother made little wooden tiles that helped us young'ns to learn to read.  She made tiles with different words, settings, and actions on them.  What made them special though, was how she also made tiles with a lot of family members' faces on them.  A few years ago, I noticed that with my cousins now having children of their own, the size of the family had almost doubled.  The younger bunch had found the old tiles and had a grand old time making their older cousins do silly things.  I found a bag of the leftover tiles, and made another batch, adding in those who had been born since the first set was made.  I consider myself very lucky to have such a large and ever-growing family, so this Christmas, I decided it was time for yet another batch of tiles.

Using one of the originals as a size reference for the heads

I added a lot of different settings and verbs in the last group, so this time, I mainly focused on making tiles for all the new babies that had been born since then.  I decided to go for a New Orleans theme this time around.

The finished tiles

I'm really proud of my crawfish.

In the background, you can see Christmas presents in the works for the rest of the family.  I decorated glass ornaments with oil based felt pens.  The red one is a Sharpie brand, but I used another brand for the other colors since a pack of those is about the same cost as one Sharpie.

Six out of 25 that I made.

The reason I had those oil based paint pens in the first place is, you guessed it, to make Sharpie mugs.  My mother is the type of person that no one ever knows what to get for her.  She really doesn't ask for much more than a nice quiet afternoon nap, Netflix, and a large glass of iced tea.  I couldn't think of anything to get for her for Christmas.  Luckily for me, she cleaned out our pantry and found a large pack of assorted hot chocolate mixes.  She started drinking those every night, which gave me the idea for the mugs.

Dollar Store mugs.

I'm not going to go into detail as to how I made these, since they're all over the internet right now.

 The one with the fleur-de-lis was mainly a test one so that I could get the feel of the markers on the ceramics, but she uses that one the most.

When I was at Michaels to get the oil based paint pens, I noticed a pack of canvases for a very good price.  Being as weak as I am, I bought a pack.  My boyfriend had mentioned something about wanting more art for his wall, so I thought about making a series of canvases that resembled the surface of the planets.  The pack only had 5 canvases, so I decided to do galaxies instead.

Sketching the nebula

I based it off of this nebula.

Almost finished

In retrospect, acrylics would probably have been a better choice than watercolors, but hey, I like how it turned out.  I used an iridescent color in the center which doesn't show up too well on camera, but it looks much better in person.  I still need to put the other stars in the background.

And that's about it.  In the meantime, I have a show to direct.

So you want to know how ballet shoes work

Let me preface this post by saying this is not a guide for anyone looking for the perfect ballet feet.  I am a semi retired ballet dancer, and I haven't taken a proper class in over 4 months.  As a result, my feet aren't nearly as strong as they used to be.  This is a post mainly for artists who want an explained reference of exactly where the ribbons go, how elastics are placed, and the general anatomy of ballet shoes.

Normally, tights that match the color of the shoes are worn, but for the sake of showing more contrast between the pink shoes and my pinkish skin, I wore black tights.  Sometimes shoes are colored for character roles onstage.  For example, in The Nutcracker, the Spanish dancers and Chinese dancers often wear black pointe shoes with their pink tights.

A note about tights:  Once dancers reach close to pointe shoe age, they switch to convertible tights.  They have a hole on the bottom which allows for easier access to the toes to adjust padding and bandages.

Flat Shoes

Forgive the holes.  This is an old pair.  On the left, improper elastic placement.  On the right, proper elastic placement.

Flat shoes are worn by both men and women, beginners and professionals.  Most flats are made of either leather or canvas.  Canvas shoes tend to be more often used because they're quieter, easier to take care of, and easier to dance in.  On the other hand, leather provides a better workout for the feet since they offer a little more resistance in pointing feet.

Showing split-sole shoes

Most dancers prefer split sole shoes.  This refers to the pattern of having a sole under the heel and under the balls of the feet with a gap in between.  This gives a more flattering line when pointing and allows the shoe to move with the foot better.  As a contrast, a picture of full soled ballet shoes can be found here.

Improper elastic placement on the left, corrected on the right.

In flat shoes, all the weight is balanced on the balls of the feet.  These shoes do not have the support to allow the dancer to stand on the tips of the toes.  The shoes themselves are rounded at the toe.  Flat shoes tend to not have much of a shape on their own.  Think of the shoe itself as a really thick sock made of canvas.

Most shoes come with one end of the elastic sewn, allowing the dancer to sew the other wherever he or she pleases.

Elastics are used to hold the shoe on the foot.  Commonly, elastics are sewn in a criss-cross manner.  The cross should be very close to where the foot meets the ankle.  This makes it easier for the heel of the shoe to stay on.  One side of the elastic is sewn closer to the heel, and the other is sewn no farther towards the toe than the instep.

Another method of sewing, which I personally use, is to sew the ends of the elastics together to make one giant loop.  From there, the loop is crossed at the ankle, then passed over the toe to rest at the instep.  Personally, I find this more flattering since I have a relatively high instep and flat shoes tend not to hug it super well.  This forces the shoe closer to the instep and shows the arch of the foot a bit better.  While this is not demonstrated in the picture above, it can be seen in the video.

Some very traditional schools, particularly in Russia, use ribbons on flat shoes similar to ribbons on pointe shoes instead of elastics.  It's not very common, but if you see pictures of ribbons on flat shoes and get a little confused, that's why.

Pointe Shoes

Properly tied pointe shoes.

Pointe shoes are probably the most misrepresented articles of clothing in the western world.

Shown on the right, a properly tied pointe shoe.  On the left, DEAR GOD PLEASE NO. 

Let's start with the drawstring.  Pointe shoes have a drawstring that helps the shoe fit the foot better.  The strings are never showing.  If too long, this poses a safety hazard.  In the smaller steps, a dancer could step on her strings similarly to how someone could step on loose shoestrings and trip themselves.  While it is up to the dancer exactly how she ties her drawstrings, they end up neatly tucked into the shoe.

Now the ribbons.  Most stereotypical ballerina drawings show the ribbons crisscrossing up the leg and tied in a big bow.  This just doesn't happen.  They are crossed at the ankle in the same placement elastics in flat shoes are, then wrapped around the ankle and tied.  The excess ribbon is neatly tucked in the wrapped ribbon, between the Achilles tendon and the bone that feels like a little ball.  Like the drawstring, loose ribbons are a safety hazard for the same reasons.  Ribbons are usually one inch in width.

Pointing to my instep.

Like elastics, ribbons are sewn on the shoe no further forward than the instep.  Dancers will tailor their shoes individually based on how they like the placement, but that is generally the rule.  Different dancers will cross their ribbons with either the outside ribbon on top, or the inside ribbon on top.  Outside meaning the outer edge of the foot, and inside meaning the inner edge of the foot with the instep.  Personally, I like the inside on top, but as long as you stay consistent, it doesn't really matter either way.

The overwhelming majority of dancers also sew elastic to their pointe shoes.  Some sew them in a criss-cross in the same manner flat shoes are sewn.  In this case, the elastics are always sewn to the shoe and never sewn in a loop and wrapped around.  In other cases, myself included, a single piece is sewn on in a small loop to be worn near the base of the ankle.  It is not shown in these pictures because I took them as a reference for a particular show where the dancers don't wear elastics.  I sew mine on very close together on the heel since I have trouble with my heel staying on.

The overwhelming majority of pointe shoes have single soles.

Generally, properly tied pointe shoes seem to show a single band of ribbon in the back.  This doesn't always happen in real life, but is close to what we go for.

Now for the shoe itself.

A Point-of-View shot of pointe shoes.  Elastics are shown.

The flat part of the shoe on which the dancer balances is called the platform.  It usually is slightly larger than one square inch, but the size itself differs between brands of pointe shoes.  The part on top from the platform to the drawstring is known as the vamp.  The vamp usually covers the length of the toes.  The brand I wear does have an especially long vamp since I need a little more support there.  The underside, which is where the sole is, is known as the shank.  A helpful diagram can be found here.

Showing the platform head-on.

Pointe shoes hold their shape much more rigidly than flat shoes.  This support, along with the strength of the dancer's feet and legs, is what allows the dancer to balance on the tips of her toes.  (Google "X ray of pointe shoes" for a fun time.)

First position on demi-pointe 

First position en pointe.

Not a lot of people seem to realize that it is possible to stay on the balls of the toes in pointe shoes.  It makes sense, but not a lot of people think about it.  It is actually the intermediate phase between being flat on your feet and fully en pointe.  It allows for "rolling" up or down, which is proper technique for getting on and off pointe, and also tends to be safer for the dancers.  Some steps do require dancers to hop straight up onto pointe, but rolling up is considered proper technique.

Other References

I think that's everything I have to offer at this point.  If you want to see dancers who have really good feet for references, search for Svetlana Zakharova, Sylvie Guillem, and Isabelle Ciaravola.  They all have beautiful feet and their shoes fit them perfectly.  From there, your search engine should give you similar searches for other professional dancers.  Most professional dancers have their pointe shoes tailor made to their feet, instead of trying on a lot and trying to find a style that works for them like most non-professional dancers like myself.  If you want to draw a good ballerina, they are much better models than I am.  I just wanted to show you how ballet shoes worked.

When it comes to proper technique, I am unfortunately way too out of shape to be of use.  However, Zach and Ryan both run quality ballet blog and are themselves, extremely talented dancers.  For references on proper ballet technique, poses, and inspiration for art, check out their blogs.  If Tumblr is not your thing, photographer Gene Schiavone on Facebook is a very talented photographer and posts beautiful images of dancers every day.  He shoots professional dancers as well as students, so he also has a very wide range of references that you can use.

Video I made of 360 degree view of different types of shoes in different positions.

If you have any other questions or want to see something in particular, feel free to ask me anything.  If I can't answer it, I will be glad to refer you to someone who can.