We had the opportunity to work with my good friend Amy Mann (not the singer), whom I met at the wonderful
Sangre de Cristo Youth Ranch summer camp in New Mexico. Amy graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art where she studied Experimental Fashion, Fiber, and Video. She taught the 9th Street students a cool fabric dyeing technique - actually a variation on a marbling method using shaving cream that Kami Wilt had introduced to us last year. It was really neat to see the kids try it again with a slightly different medium and build on the work they'd done in paper last time. Amy also helped the kids create a screen for printing our collaboratively designed schoolhouse logo. We'll be silkscreening on Friday at our End of the Year Celebration! (Don't look too closely parents, we want to surprise you!)
Also in the album below you'll see another dyeing technique Kami taught us using photosensitive dye. The kids created designs out of many different materials. They laid out their designs on a piece of plexiglass, then painted the fabric with the dye and quickly set the fabric outside with the plastic over it. The exposure to the sun revealed the color of the dye and voila, amazing tinted fabric!
