Living in the 70's
It was the 1970’s, bright colours were everywhere, especially in our home. I grew up making castles with the bright yellow cushions from our lounge. Turquoise curtains and our sunburst coloured shag pile rugs were my backdrops. Even my teenage bedroom was splashed in colour; my primary yellow desk with matching shelves was complimented with a bright purple rug; though I always wished my parents had painted my walls sky blue and highlighted by my ceiling with white fluffy clouds. The 70’s were awesome for clothes - my bright yellow overalls and my electric blue shirt set off with a bright yellow lightening bolt brooch was my favourite. My childhood really was surrounded by colour.
You need Rain to make a Rainbow
Growing up in Melbourne with four seasons in one day gave the sky plenty of opportunities to create rainbows. During school holidays we often drove interstate to visit family. We played games like eye-spy and sang 10 green bottles starting at 100! It was on returning to Melbourne from one of these holidays that I noticed my first double rainbow! I remember being so excited I wound down the window and leaned my head out. Of course my mum freaked out and did the protective mum yelling thing which probably imprinted that first double rainbow more firmly in my mind.
Discovering Tie Dye
It was in the late 80’s on a trip to visit friends at Murwillumbah that I discovered Tie Dye. These clothes had really bright colours, the patterns were all over the fabric. I wanted to buy everything in the shop! The hoodie and scarf came home with me and became my favourite clothes. I really wanted to learn Tie Dyeing but there were no places to learn near me at the time and our local library didn’t have any tie dyeing books.
Everything Rainbow
Life happened and it wasn’t until 2004 that the idea of creating Rainbows with Tie Dyes visited me again. We attended an open day at a Steiner School - there were rainbows everywhere! I wanted to go to school and be surrounded by rainbows, sadly I was too old for kindy so my son attended in my place. I started learning all about Tie Dyeing while he was at Kindy. Before long he had everything rainbow, his friends received rainbow t-shirts for their birthdays and I was getting requests for rainbow t-shirts, doona covers, curtains and more. A whole rainbow filled world opened up for me.
It was after so many of my friends and customers told me how much they’d like to do Tie Dyeing that I developed my first Rainbow Tie Dye kit. The original way I was taught to Tie Dye involved lots of different chemicals so I spoke with our high school chemistry teacher about what each one did. We eliminated everything except for the Dyes and the dye fixer. This meant I could create a tie dye kit that was safe for family and children to use and still produced bright beautiful colours and was safe to send through the post. It is so exciting to be able to share Tie Dye rainbows with people throughout Australia, we often send kits to remote and regional areas.
The Power of Rainbows
Since those early Tie Dyeing days I’ve shared rainbows with thousands of people young and young of heart.
I love how their faces light up when they see the bright Tie Dye colours.
I am amazed how children who are wearing dark colours slouch, but as soon as they put on their tie dye their whole posture changes and they become enlivened.
I’m excited that children demand to put their Tie Dye t-shirts on before they even leave my market stall.
I chuckle when parents tell me they have to bribe their children to take their tie dye t-shirt off so it can be washed because it’s the only t-shirt they wear.
I love hearing of the connections families make and the fun memories they create when they make tie dyes together.
And I am honoured that parents and educators trust me to always provide quality Tie Dye kits and expert knowledge and support so people like you can create their own rainbows.
If you love to surround yourself with rainbows we have a whole range of Tie Dye kits and Wet Felting Kits that are fun and easy to use even with a whole classroom full of children.
Check out the colourful rainge of Tie Dye workshop kits on our website
What to know more? Give Kimberlie at Bright Crafts a call or send us an email and we will get you started.