“Where did you score those?”

“I just took a plain white cotton shirt and a pair of socks, and I dyed them myself.”

“Groovy!  Where did you learn to do that?”

“Check it out – I went to my local library and found a DVD titled Tie Dye 101: The Basics of Making Exceptional Tie Dye. That disc is awesome!  It taught me everything I needed to do to get these really great designs, including all the tools I needed and how to use them. There’s this brother and this chick that own a company called “True Tie Dye,” and those two are genius! They show the process step by step so it’s really clear and they really make sure you know what to do to stay safe while working with the chemicals.  They’ve got it all figured out, including how to avoid most of the problems they say can occur when tie dyeing.”

“After I tried out the techniques from that DVD I went back to the library and checked out some books on how to create a variety of different patterns with tie dye. Tie-dye: The How to Book by Virginia Gleser is right on, with a variety of other patterns to try, and The Ultimate T-shirt Book by Deborah Morganthal has some pretty righteous designs, as well. They also have Tie-dyeing: Get Started in a New Craft with Easy-to-Follow Projects for Beginners by Celia Buchanan, as well as books on how to do other cool things with fabrics and dye.”

“Now that I’m feeling more confident with my skill as a dye artist I’m going back to the library to check out True Tie Dye’s other title, Advanced Tie Dye Techniques. It has two discs, Tie Dye 202, which shows how to make various shapes, such as hearts, stars, alien heads…”

“Far out!  You can tie dye alien heads?”

“Sure, man! Not only that, but the second disc, Tie Dye 303, shows how to do really complex patterns, like mandalas, lotus blossoms and suns!  I can hardly wait to get started.”

“What a trip!  I can dig that. Mind if I come with you and give it a try?”

“Right on.”