Tie-Dye Throwback

There haven't been too many tie-dye related posts on the blog in a few weeks now, and unfortunately that's due to our being in a bit of a creation-slump. We started to run low on blanks and with my job situation rapidly evolving and changing over the past few months I've been hesitant to put any money towards the hobby when I had more pressing adult matters to worry about (like keeping a roof over my head and food in our bellies)... Things should be changing for the better here soon, and we've gotten some good news and a couple of checks coming in, but we're certainly not rich by any stretch of the imagination. This is part of why I'm so passionate about getting our tie-dye off the ground, though, while it can be a challenging balance to find. We need a day job (for now) to keep afloat but the desire to invest heavily in our own business is strong, too. I can't go crazy and buy all the blanks I would like to, though, because I need to be sure we stay out of the red each month. So far 710Visuals has been a mainly self-sustaining project, but to grow it further I need to bump it up a notch or two out of my comfort zone. Not the easiest thing to do. But I digress.

Since we haven't been making much these past few weeks, please enjoy the photos of a previous batch I don't think I've ever shared here yet. These shirts were all made by Antho while I was over in Korea, so that makes them extra special. Typically we make all the shirts as a team, sometimes one will fold and the other will apply the dye, but when it comes to rinsing and processing them it's a team effort every time... except for this batch, because I was so geographically distant there was just no feasible way I could help outside of texting him instructions and motivation/support. He had to fold, dye, rinse, untie, wash, photograph, process and post all of these all by his lonesome, which isn't the easiest of tasks. I'm proud that he did this, though, and I think it helped him understand more how much work actually goes into the back end of running our shop. I usually handle the processing and listing for everything because I have the desktop computer and have more familiarity with it. It's a team effort here, at 710Visuals! 

Art: Spray paint dip painting first try

Liquid art is undeniably psychedelic, and that's one of the big appeals of it to us. Antho originally dove into light art after witnessing the judicious use of water and oil with dye on an overhead projector at an underground show here in Vegas and being amazed at the trippy visuals they were able to achieve with such a simple set up. That was ages ago and unfortunately, the mixer that was used to create our high tech visuals has gone MIA; likely having gotten lost somewhere between moving homes and shuffling things between storage units and abodes... surely it will pop up at some point again, but it's definitely put a damper on our projection art these days. We haven't been doing shows at all, though Antho has expressed an interest and sadness about it, usually circling back to the absent mixer with a sigh. 

I understand his sadness; it's a roughly $600 piece of equipment and it was an important investment for him to make and now it's...where? That's not an easy chunk of money for us to part with, so it's not something we could just pick up again tomorrow... so this important personal thing is just out there, in the abyss somewhere, and that's a shit feeling. Having moved countries a few times now and moved all around Vegas, I've had a lot of my personal belongings go missing or get lost along the way and though it's been cathartic for me to let go of some, there are definitely those items I remember and wonder about with a bit of disappointment. They're probably out there, too, in the abyss somewhere... to be found at some later time and date perhaps... but for now, we can make new art and experiment with other means of expressing ourselves. 

We tried acrylic pour painting recently and liked it so much we did it again shortly after, but we have several cans of spray paint floating around going unused so we thought we'd try something different after a few more hours spent on Youtube. For this endeavor, we simply filled a plastic tub with regular tap water then applied spraypaint to the surface. The paint would float and we could add more colors for a varied appearance... it was a lot of fun and interesting to see how different our paintings came out despite using the same mediums yet again. One thing we discovered right away is that the paint would harden up pretty quickly, so if we waited too long it would congeal on the surface. This meant that any additional design changes had to be done before the paint hardened, but that wasn't that big of a challenge, just a point of caution more than anything. 

More photos below!

Art: Acrylic Pour Paintings, second round

Any skill worth having takes time to perfect, and that's true of art as much as anything else. We tried pour painting for the first time not that long ago and we were thrilled with the results, especially since we opted to go low-budget with it and use Elmer's glue (less than $11 a gallon) instead of pouring medium (much more money). The first time through we didn't have any lubricant or oils to separate the paints, either, so we had a much smoother blend of colors. This time though we had a small can of WD-40 to use, so use it we did! I used a moderate spritz of it between adding each additional color, and the end result were the differentiated blobs of color drifting among the other shades you see above. I dig it. We still have plenty of paint, glue and WD-40, though canvases are already running out. We got what I thought was quite a generous amount, too, but I can't complain about how much art we've been making. It's been a real breath of fresh air, especially since so much of my 2017 was engulfed by a sales job that stressed me out and ran completely contrary to my character... 

I've never been especially fond of working in sales but considered it a necessary evil in this day and age, but the company I worked for through 2017 went about things in a particularly malicious and predatory way that I found hard to swallow. It obviously works for them as they're making over $100,000 each month off of tourists, but I can't tell you how many times I sold someone a deck of cards only to have them come back a short time later fuming and screaming in my face because they found the exact same item inside the same casino for one-third of the price...of course, the company I worked for doesn't offer refunds, so no amount of abuse from the customer could ameliorate the fact they were out whatever exorbitant amount they'd paid for the item. As someone who spent the better part of the last decade in a field that created product that resulted in consumers laughing at themselves, it was difficult to stand there and see people so upset and know that I was working as an agent of a company that directly preyed upon their naivety to pad their own pockets. That same lack of empathy extends to the employees, too, so don't worry- we weren't getting much better treatment than the customers were. Suffice to say, be wary when you're out and about and be especially cautious of any fast-talking sales people on the Vegas strip who seem over eager to sell you on an item or cut you a deal. Chances are you'll find the same item for a fraction of the cost somewhere else if you keep walking...and if you really want that thing right then and there, then go for it and help that sales person hit their commission for the day, but know that you're paying as much for the experience as you are for the item.

Right here, right now, though? We're here for the pretties. The good stuff, the soul healing happy making dance-inducing pretty things.

Let's art!

Art: Acrylic pour paintings, first try

  

This was a first try for the both of us, so we were a bit nervous initially going into it but we ended up being quite thrilled with the results! We had been watching Youtube videos of various acrylic pour paintings over the months off and on, but after some research we learned of the dirty pour method which involves mixing several colours into a cup before releasing the paints onto the canvas and went with that. There are tons of different techniques and mediums available for achieving this sort of effect so it's really up to you and your imagination what you would do with it! We opted for a basic roygbiv color palette to start and mixed our acrylic paints with regular white glue to thin along with some water. Some painters will use a grease or lubricant (giggity) between layers of paint, or spritz them over the final painting, and this creates more bubbles and layering. It makes sense, if you think about it; acrylic mixes with water and oils and water do not mix, so using an oil-based substance to suspend the paints will create more texture and more bubbles of isolated colour that refuses to melt into the background. 

We, however, did not have any lubes (giggity) this time through, and instead went with just the modified paint. Mixing the paints with the glue and water was probably the most time consuming part, then finding places where we could safely pour the paint without spillage the next. It does take some time for the paintings to dry, though the actual time frame will vary depending on how thick the paints are on the canvas. We quickly learned that if you tilt the canvas too far, and the paints are too thin, much of your colour will go pouring over the side in no time at all! At the right viscosity, there's some more time to angle and adjust to ensure your canvas is covered and your colours have spread and created something you approve of. We only had Youtube videos to go from as far as the desired viscosity, but we were quite pleased with the results we had. Even though we used the same colours, each painting was completely different from the last! We're definitely excited to keep experimenting with this technique, and you can expect some more posts on the matter to come!

Art: More January 2018 ice-dye

Another day, another tie-dye. I suppose some people might consider it tedious work by this point, but for us it's a continual process of experimentation and discovery.  There's always new folds, new colour combinations, new alchemy to uncover. No matter how many times we've dyed there's always something new cropping up, some fun new melt, something to uncover. It always seems photogenic, to me, though I guess our viewers might have their opinions about such matters. Both +Antho Jay  and I have been pretty happy with our most recent batches of creations, and as each new batch is a further step in our journey of learning and creating, I like to imagine they keep getting better as we go.  We've been experimenting with applying the dye powder directly to the fabric and then applying the ice recently, in an effort to create more precise colour patterns and lines. We haven't been unhappy with the result- and we've had a couple of items come out that we were really excited about. I'll be posting about the reveal for those when the time comes, but for now please enjoy these photos of our behind the scenes creation process for our tie-dye. We're always trying new colours and techniques and though I've posted about our tie-dye many, many times in the past I can honestly say I don't feel that it's something that will ever become redundant due to the infinite methods for creation and combination available to us.  We recently invested in a big bulk box of shirts so that we could try to create whenever the impulse struck, and I've been very very pleased with the outcome of that. We've been making tie-dye on a nearly daily basis now and trying things we might not have otherwise delved into if we didn't have such a backlog of bounty to experiment with available. While Google might say otherwise, that's their problem. We love making tie-dye and are happy to share it with the world. We hope you enjoy our colourful creations! Plenty more photos will proliferate below, so enjoy the colourful alchemy occurring below. Cheers.

Art: Winter ice-dye round two

More ice-dye! What can I say, I love almost everything about this process and it's so much fun! We tend to have a variety of blank t-shirts floating around at any given time so all we really ever need to pick up is the ice so we're prone to spontaneous dye sessions when the mood strikes. This is ideal for us as inspiration can occur at the most random of times and I like to strike while the iron is hot- or, in this case, while the ice is still cold.  This being the desert the ice tends to change states pretty quick during the warmer months, though currently we have a little more wiggle room which is nice. In the process we've been accumulating quite a back catalogue of freshly made shirts that have yet to get properly photographed and listed on our Etsy shop, so for now they're in a bit of a limbo. This has been a little frustrating for me as I'm definitely the hardline type-A in this relationship and feel a need to stay perpetually productive. I always carry two different agendas and a plentitude of pens in various inks and viscosities to work in tangent with the complex color-coded system of tabs I use for my agendas denoting tasks accomplished or goals and events I'm looking forward to or striving towards... I make spreadsheets for fun. One of my biggest goals for 2018 is to dramatically increase our shop inventory and I've felt pressured to get cracking on it before this month slips away into the next. On top of that we've been cycling through various illnesses in various parts of our bodies (chest, stomach, sinus, blah) for most of this year so far... so, really, I suppose there's a very good reason we've been in a bit of a stagnant pause on listing items. I'm grateful that we're still being productive and at least creating, but I've got high-in-the-sky dreams for what I want to accomplish this year and I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself... perhaps 2018 is the year I should breathe deep and try to be a little gentler on myself. These things will get done, and soon, but they'll get accomplished even more gladly when I'm not stressing myself or Antho out about having not already done it. We've still been scouting locations and making new inventory, after all, so it's not like we've simply sat idly by... though, in a sense, that's a lot of what ice dye is- waiting... but I digress.  

Here's some pretty pictures of the process!