One dye technique not to be overlooked is the old 1960's tie dye technique.
In many countries using ties to act as a *resist* when dyeing produces many complicated patterns and designs, not just the random effect usually associated with the 1960's hippy look. It is a technique that takes planning similar to that of creating batik designs. You work from lighter to darker shades with the tied areas preserving some of the lighter colors covered by the over-dyeing. One needs a good perception of what colors do in over-dyeing, for instance, yellow over-dyed with blue will produce various green shades, blue over red makes purples, etc.
Many materials can be used to tie garments before dyeing: string, rubber bands, knotting the garment, or just twisting and bunching it tightly can resist dyes thus leaving white areas, or exposing lighter colors used before.
The basic process consists of deciding on a design (unless you want a random effect), tying the strings, dyeing the first color, tying new resist strings, and re-dyeing to suit.
Sketch out your design on paper and then bind off the areas on the cloth. I suggest keeping things simple at first with basic round and eliptical shapes.
Once the cloth is tied off, use mordant if necessary and immerse in the dye.
Let the cloth drip off and rinse off excess dye. Then re-tie newly dyed areas with the second part of your pattern. Continue in this manner until all the colors you want have been layered on the garment.
Its a fun and rather intuitive process with lots of surprises. Enjoy your experiments!
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