Today ThaiDye.com added a page to their web site laying out the underlying philosophy followed in running their business.

The main points are:

1. 1. Giving back: At least 10% of the profits go the support children in the developing world.
2. 2. Sustainable production: Where ever possible the switch has been done to natural fibers to produce the clothing.
3. 3. Look for reasonable following of rules and regulations – no need to spend thousands to get government approval.
4. 4. A sweat-shop free production environment, because happy people make happy product which make happy customers.

I have watched, with my family, especially our nine year old, Miley Cyrus’ Disney Show Hanna Montana pretty much from the  beginning and we all like it – even though I think the coolest person in the show is Daddy – sorry to all your Miley-only fans, but at least it’s the real daddy so the genes are right

Now I ran into a nice image of Miley the other day, probably taken somewhere in the greater Los Angeles area – anybody know where exactly? – which I liked…

Allow me to dream a bit that all star, starlets and celebrities are eager to wear the mudmee tie-dye we offer the world.  I am sure if they would find out about us that would be certainly true anyways.

I have alredy started to dress one of our female astronauts properly for her accomplishments in space and so now it was Miley’s turn to be be chiqued up.

Out came good old photoshop and suddenly we have some exquisitely dressed Miley Cyrus…

I would have loved to dress Miley in one of the all natural cotton skirts – but that would have taxed my photoshop abilities too much, so instead here you have Destinee modeling on of the mudmee skirts.

She looks a bit like Miley anyways and even is the same age. She and her friend actually came to us offering to model for us – cool, huh?

In the good old days a product was created and then sold – and that was it. OK, in the car market new and better models came out every so often, but a new model year could not really be seen as different versions of the same car.

But with the advent of software this changed. Software was so fast in its development cycle that programs were released before they were actually ready for prime time. A software publisher could not possibly admit to the fact that he had released an unfinished product and so the version was invented.

Iterations like version 1.0, 1.1, 1.4 etc were common. Often, when the publisher finally got it right a major version step was introduced – version 2.0.

Tongue in cheek we now call the mudmee tie-dye from ThaiDye.com “Tie-dye 2.0″ – indicating that the good old hippie tie-dye worked and got the job done, but that only now, with the arrival of “Tie-dye 2.0″ we finally got it right.

Here is a little video that tells the story…

From the blog post How to create real value on Steve Pavlina’s blog I learned about the young company Reflect Inc. with a very unique product that I can not help but telling you about.

Look at this…

Can you read the writing on the wall – uh – T-shirt? Tell you so much, it’s inspirational – - OK, get your mirror out and read it in the reflection, then it will be easy.

So, what’s the point you might say. I think it’s a great point, because this message (by the way, for all of you who did not bother to bring out the mirror – it says “I am greatful for all that I have”) is mostly for the wearer of the t-shirt, right? And when is it that you look at the front of your t-shirt – - right, when you are in the front of the mirror – So – here we go!

And beside this it’s a great conversation starter – and it’s OK to stare while you try to figure it out.

This is just without comment – it’s so good, no word would add anything to it…

No, sorry, ThaiDye does not carry those,
but if they get enough requests that might change in the future.

I have to report on a very interesting and courages project starting right now in the commercial world of tie-dye.

The idea is to have all the commercial tie-dyers come together under one (virtual) roof and present their offering to the world. Customarily business in the same area compete, but I came up with the idea that if we all work together and create a lot of momentum, we will create for us a much more solid position in the world of clothing and fashion.

I consider this more like a big trade show, and trade shows have brought together competing businesses under one roof in the past for all to benefit from. Physical trade shows are probably on the way out – with high costs of travel and the internet that can give you the ability to see more offerings under one roof that would be possible in a brick-and-mortar show – the virtual trade show will be the new way to connect vendors and customers.

The onlyu advantage the real-world trade show has is the fact that the visitor can experience the wares with more senses than is possible in a virtual trade show – but this is all a matter of time.

So, let’s get started now with our first tie-dye trade show at Tie-Dye-Shopping.com.

In the initial stages this virtual trade show has the advantage of being  free – compare that to the costs involved going to Magic in Las Vegas.

So, spread the word and let all tie-dyers congregate at the Tie-Dye Marketplace.

If it’s about customers business owners often have the three-year-old mentality of mine-mine-mine. There is no way to share and part of the market. I think that this is a very destructive state of mind because that, what we put our attention on, is what will materialize. The mind does not understand negatives, so if I repeat to myself, I don’t want to be poor, I don’t want to be poor, etc., what we actually concentrating on is ‘poor’ – and this is what we get.

Same with the scarcity of customers – when we protect our turf because we think customers are scarce, then they are. On the other hand, if we concentrate on an abundance of customers, we will get right that. And if there are plenty of customers and they don’t quite find what they are looking for in my store, I send them to a similar one and create a happy customer – and a happy customer is a good customer, and everybody wins.

To practice that I want to tell, from time to time, about another tie-dyer with products I like. Visitors might have stumbled upon this site and it might not offer what they are looking for, but then there is a possibility to find it at one of those featured tie-dyers.

Without further adoo, here is one such tie-dyer from the other side of the continent (we are in California, by the way)…

My name is Margie.

I’ve been making tie dyes since 1992.   At first I began making tie dyes for myself because it was fun and I enjoyed wearing them.  I purchased a Procion dye kit and some instruction books.  After some experimenting and a lot of trial and error I managed to produce tie dyes that I thought looked pretty good.  Over time whenever I wore my tie dyes I noticed people would compliment me on my work and would ask where I got them.  So I began selling by word-of-mouth and in 1997 I began attending Festivals where my brightly colored booth attracted still more tie-dye fans.

People often ask to see examples of my work. Or they see me at a festival and ask if I have a web site so that they can buy tie dyes later.  My tie dyes have been in the internet since 2002 at Wickedly Wise – Bright Spirited Tie-Dye, where you’ll find a variety of t-shirts, tank tops, children’s, toddler and infant clothing to choose from.

If you’ve seen something at a Festival and it’s not out here yet or if you have any other questions or comments, please contact me.

Thank-you,
Margie

Isn’t that a great website name – Wickedly Wise?

Recently I learned that there is a tight community of do-it-yourself tie-dyers around, with their own wiki and forum. Our ideas at ThaiDye.com – to sell our wares at a profit – do not fit the mindset of this community, but we believe that we should embrace both worlds because they can co-exist peacefully.

There are visitors who look for tie-dye to buy and there are those who come to learn how to do it themselves. Why not help out the second group as well?

So, today I want to introduce Brad Garrett who makes tie-dye for many years and has published a set of DVD to teach you to tie-dye. Here are his thoughts about the mudmee tie-dye we promote at ThaiDye.

I remember when I first found your site a couple of years ago. Seeing your work invoked a feeling in me I hadn’t felt for years. It was a feeling that took me back to before I started making tie dyes in 1991. The feeling of amazement took over my mind and made me remember why I started making tie dyes in the first place.
I had a friend with this shirt that just blew my mind. Every time he wore it I couldn’t stop looking at it or wondering how it was made. Well, over the years I hadn’t seen any more tie dyes like that one until I found your site. I literally spent hours looking at your tie dies the very first time I found them. I really love the way you get the colors in-between each other.
On top of that I really love the color choices you make and the colors them-selves are just so vibrant and distinctive I can’t get over it. There are only a few tie dye artist that really capture my attention like you do.

Great work!

Thanks, Brad, for your kind words!

If you, dear visitor, got here in search for information on how to make your own tie-dye, maybe even throw a tie-dye party or have some fun-filled afternoon with the kids (do this just before you plan to change the carpet), then by all means, check out Brad’s DVDs…

Today, when we think of tie-dye, we automatically imagine the sixties and seventies with their peace movements, flower power and Woodstock. However, the art of dying fabrics and specifically tie-dying goes far back in time. Men has always had the urge to adorn him or herself. Nature is full of colors and very early on it was understood that those colors nature offered could be used to beautify the clothes one wore.

China and Japan had fully developed the art of tie-dye as early as the sixth century AD, about one and a half millennia ago. Hemp and silk which are very receptive to dying had become available and made this outstanding art possible. Instead of dying the finished garment some tribes in Central America, South East Asia and Western China dyed the threads before weaving. Technically this was not tie-dye but the beauty of the designs that appeared was striking as were the patterns done with tie-dying.

Today we are used to synthetic dyes that are easy to use because they are safe, long lasting and quick setting, but in the early days dyes had to be extracted from nature. Sources of these dyes were roots, berries and the flowers and leaves of a variety of plants like blackberries, safflower, marigold, sage, indigo and many others. Some of these natural dyes are still used today. They are of very great interest to the artist who work in close proximity to nature and who promotes organic fabric and clothing. As a fiber used for the dyed clothing, natural materials offer themselves very prevalently as they take the dye much better than many synthetic fibers.

During the Momoyama period, which lasted for about 30 years at the end of the 16th century, a new fiber-art form developed which combined tie-dye with ornamental drawing. This art form spanned the whole gamut from a piece consisting of mostly tie-dye on one end to large un-dyed areas for drawing flower, tree and landscape designs on the other end of the spectrum.

In Japan this form was used to create kimonos awarded to officers by the warlords in recognition of special bravery in battle with neighboring adversaries. These kimonos were a very valuable family possession and have often been passed down from generation to generation. Today many of those art pieces can be found in museums. The natural dyes might have faded but the depicted designs are still magnificent.

It is interesting to notice that a few centuries later tie-dye became the symbol of non-conflict, understanding and peace. This generation of baby boomers is now in a position where it has time to reflect after their most productive time in life, and we notice a growing interest and a revival of tie-dye. Often today’s tie-dye pieces are of much higher art value than the sixties Woodstock t-shirts and in particular when combined with the traditional Asian Mudmee tie-dye, garments become wearable art.

Today we have a guest story from Jason B. from Austin, Texas:

Having grown up during the flower-power days, tie-dye had always had a fascination for me. This is the story on how I finally got my act together and got right into the adventure of tie-dye. Not only the adventure of finding the right shop to buy my next shirt, but experiencing the exhilaration of creating one of those great pieces of clothing myself.

It all started one lazy Sunday afternoon with nothing to do but either hanging out with some friends or watching some re-run show on TV. I had more or less decided on the former and got into my closet to put on another shirt when one of those darn tie-dye t-shirts caught my eye.

Something happened within me and I abandoned the idea that I had only two choices what to do with myself and decided right there that this will be a more interesting afternoon. I wanted to make my own tie-dye shirt!

I had once, in the past, half-heartedly attempted to get my mind around the techniques used to tie-dye and invested in some books. They must be still somewhere! Fortunately my apartment was not too big and did not have too many places where a few book can hide. It only took about 10 minutes until I had unearthed one of those books.

I more or less skipped over the first chapter, which gave a bit of history of dyeing in general, then going into the specifics of tying before dyeing. Then it got interesting, showing the different ways on how to tie a t-shirt to create the different patterns.

Not everything I needed was in the house so I had to rush out to get rubber bands, string and other assorted little things the book told me about. I opted not to try to find the dyes but order them on-line after I had my shirts all tied up.

There were decisions to be made if I should go with dyes that are applied in a cold solution or one that requires a warm bath, and I thought that I would need more time to study the pros and cons of the options some more. But what I did get was a dozen of plain white t-shirts. I went with the 100% cotton because I had learned that those would take the dyes best. I also  found, on sale, one nice sweat jacket that I hope I will be able to convert into one just like the ones offered at this site, having really nice and colorful tie-dye jackets, which has been a great inspiration for me.

Two hours later I was back at my place with everything I would need to get creative. And that I did. I took one t-shirt and folded horizontal pleats to – hopefully – end up with horizontal stripes and then I thought that I better also make one with vertical pleats because vertical stripes make you appear slimmer and that would probably be good for me.

Finally, when midnight was not that far away any more, I had to put things away as the lazy Sunday, which had turned out to be a rather productive Sunday, would be over soon and work was expecting me full of energy.

I ended up with five t-shirts with different methods of tying as the book had taught me. I have mentioned above the site with these hooded jackets, and I also looked at one of the tie-dye t-shirts they have, made with the same techniques, and I even tried tying to get something like this. Only when I will do the dyeing on of the next lazy Sundays will I know if I succeeded.

I’m proud of myself today that I turned a lazy Sunday into such a productive day and that’s why I thought I write this little article to remind me again later how much better a Sunday can be if it’s not lazy.