(Newsletter reprint)

In response to our last newsletter some of you told us that you enjoyed the report about Gigi’s Thailand trip and that you wanted to hear more about it.

Obviously the big news was, as reported previously, that Gigi got to do an internship with the owner of our studio in Bangkok, Thailand, who is one of the very few people in the world with this great mastery of the traditional Mudmee tie-dye art.

Gigi had left Thailand many years ago to live in the US and now she had to re-learn what citizens of Bangkok have to do most every day - battling traffic. Since Gigi had left, Bangkok has expanded immensely. The increase in car traffic had brought it nearly to a stand-still. Often traffic is just grid-locked and you get faster from one place to another by walking.

But Thais are creative and inventive and solutions on different levels have been implemented to get a grip on the situation. On the private level are the operators of motor cycle taxis! Unimaginable for us here in the US, but a viable means of getting around cheaply in Bangkok.

One of the city-wide solutions for the traffic grid-lock has been the construction of the Sky-Train lines. These are (often elevated) city trains that quickly connect main points of the city, a very big city with estimates of size range from 7 to 20 million people.

When Gigi had to learn to commute to her internship, she had to employ several of the new means of transportation. Taking a normal taxi or private car would have just taken too long.

So, leaving the house of her friend, where she lived during her stay in Bangkok, she had to walk only a short distance until she could flag down one of the motor cycle taxis. The very low fare bought her a seat on the back and a short and sometimes scary ride to the next sky train station. After that it was half an hour on the train and then another ride with either a regular cab or another motor cycle taxi.

The whole trip took her between 60 and 90 minutes - not too bad for a commute in Bangkok. Then she put on her student hat and went to work. In the last newsletter we showed Gigi working on one piece being tied. I found this picture showing one element completed…

You can clearly see how tightly rubber bands are used to create resistant areas in the garment. When the whole piece is prepared like this - and HOW it is prepared that is the artistry - then it’s time for the bath in the dye.

There are many different dyes and methods, the one depicted here uses dye that is heated up pretty high to accomplish a fast and thorough setting of the color…

You can see here that each of the baths has it own burner with a gas supply line to keep the dyes at the required temperature.

OK, this was another interruption of your busy day and now we let you get back to your other activities.

Christmas is approaching in giant step now and if you still need that one special present fo a friend, loved one - or yourself, there is still time (although little) to get something from Thaidye.com as we are shipping the same day by priority mail.

Our tie-dye bags make great presents as do the cotton jersey tie-dye scarves.

We are glad that you stayed with us to the very end of this letter and will see you at the tie-dye website www.ThaiDye.com.

PS: Right after Christmas we are planning to set up a little show-case, you sending us pictures wearing out tie-dye pieces with the chance to win a free hoodie - would you be interested, please let us know. Send us an email or leave a comment - thanks!

(Newsletter reprint)

The time before the holidays is always very busy for us at ThaiDye.com.
But who is not busy, right, getting everything ready?

In addition to the usual hectic this time we send our very own Gigi back to Thailand in order to find some really unique tie-dye items for you for the holidays. And not only did she find great scarves and bags we will tell you about later but she also gained some incredible knowledge.

Here is what happened…

We might have mentioned that our studio in Thailand, which creates these fantastic designs of our tie-dye pieces, kept their process very confidential. No spies were allowed in the studio to witness the process of creating these traditional mudmee designs.

Since Gigi had started to work with this studio, she and the owner had become friends. Gigi had brought in these great patterns she designed here in the US which helped the studio to expand beyond the type of garments they could offer before, and Gigi got exactly the right garments she had seen with her inner eye.

The trust had developed to the degree that during this last visit Gigi was offered to take an apprenticeship in the studio to learn mudmee tie-dye from the ground up. You better believe that she took that opportunity with her full heart.Here you can see her working on tying a piece of fabric during her private class…

and here one of her pieces she did towards the end of her training…

Isn’t this amazing?

So, yes, this was the one big surprise that we did not expect in any form or fashion. But what we did expect is that Gigi would bring back nice new items for the holiday.

We just got some shipments from our studio and went to work to get at least some items on the web site so that you can start browsing and in your mind select who of the loved ones get what. Obviously you yourself are included in the the ‘loved ones,’ right?

The new items Gigi found this time are soft and warm knit jersey scarves

and gorgeous and practical shoulder bags

OK, this was a little bit of an interruption of your day but now we let you get back to your other activities - we are certainly grateful that you took the time to read our news letter and will see you at the tie-dye website www.ThaiDye.com.

The summer is still upon us, and so it is not really time to think about holiday shopping, but if you are like me then you are always for the look out for that specific little present for a special person - independent of the time of year I must say.

It can be hard to wait for Christmas if you have found that one thing already in summer because you are burning with anticipation to give. So why not give it right now - you don’t really need to wait for the holidays.

Now the question, where do you usually find those very special gifts? Probably not in one of the big department stores. It’s these little specialty stores where you can stumble over that little Chinese porcelain pot that’s missing in Hanna’s collection of that totally right lace tank for Emily.

Getting to these little specialty stores can require a lot of foot work, but fortunately with the internet many of those specialty stores are coming to you now, and you can save the soles of your shoes and do the foot work in your slippers.

Speaking of that lace tank for Emily…

Here I am now at the subject I wanted to arrive at as you probably guessed - after all this is the companion bLog for that specialty website that brings you the most unique tie –dye you will find in all the lands - ThaiDye.com.

It is true that large retailers are a great place to shop for holiday gifts. Particularly as the holidays close in, they do tend to run sweeping sales. Plus, they have a huge selection. You have the comfort of buying — or at least browsing for — many gifts in one location.

But if you desire to relieve the stress of pre-holiday shopping I can only recommend to start as early as nobody else and if this one special person has any interest in unique clothing I must say you have definitely found one of those places where you can find solutions for your shopping list.

Let’s look at gift giving once more from a bit different perspective. You don’t really have to wait for the holidays, a ‘just so’ present is probably much more appreciated that one expected during the holiday. Right now with the summer in full swing why not get one of those beautiful tie-dye tank tops for the warm days.

And if you really want to wait for the colder time of year you can get that tie-dye hooded jacket with built-in admiration now and keep it for the holidays - if you are able to stand the anticipation of giving so long.