What is your least favorite fold/most favorite fold?

[Kathy]

So I was about to get down to doing some folding some silks in prep for dyeing and the thought crossed my mind..."Do others dislike doing the spiral as much as I do?"
So do ya, or is there another fold that you begrudgingly do? How about a fold that you just love and can't get enough of and like to be creative with?

I think my dislike of the spiral comes in 3-parts.
1) I am not a big fan of the end result. No good reason why, just don't particularily like it.
2) Its a real PTA to do on silk, probably b/c the light weight of the silk and its "slippery" nature.
3)I get little creative satisfaction from doing it. This may be partly due to my feelings in reason 1.

My favorite fold is the mandala. Before I got Michael's "The Art of Tie-Dye" it was a fold that seriously frustrated me. After seeing his tutorial once it was as if the lights of heaven shown down on me and they angels sang Hallelujah! I can't get enough of it now. I love putting in variations i.e. hearts within an earth fold circle within a starburst.
I have actually been known to sit down with a piece of paper and work out folds so I could see how my abstract thought would play out.

So how about everybody else?
Kathy

[steve]

How about love/hate?

For me, that's the Indian Spiral T-shirt.

I have had amazing results with it, but making those little spirals off the diagonal accordion fold makes me crazy. I like anything with a spiral to be fairly uniformly flat and it can be tough in that configuration. Then there is reversing of the direction of the spiral with the excess fabric. I probably stress over it too much, but the results are so cool!

Steve

[tiedyejudy]

Actually, if I just want to get product out on the shelf, the spiral is my most favorite, as long as I am doing the same colors on each one.  I can crank out a lot of rainbow swirls in a short time, because I don't have to think about it.  I do mostly cottons, so I don't have the silk problem you do, Kathy.  As for Mandalas, I had never even attempted one before I got Michael's DVD.  I love the results, but I can't say tieing them is my favorite thing.  I guess my current favorite is the vee-stripe, because it is one I struggled with for a long time, but I have had much better results since I started drawing the diagonal line on the folded shirt, and use better tieing techniques!  I love hearts and peace symbols, but still struggle to get them right.

Judy

[Jaja]

Actually I also think that spiral is kind of cheap trick fold. But on the other hand I have seen few variations, that don't bother me - same fold but different look.
Favourite fold? LWI? Never get tired of nature looking structures. Besides that I like diversity - it's good to do fold that corresponds to my state of mind at the moment.

[ecilA]

The spiral is the all time favorite, how funny that we all find it somewhat dreary.  You are more likely to see people wearing the rainbow spiral, I think, than any other type of tiedye (I speak generally of the populous at large and not any specific group, I'm sure you'll see a funkier assortment in a lot atmosphere etc).

A chuckle over spiraling silk: imagine this: wet silk, formica table top.  We're talking major suction.  That was not the time to be working with fabric *that* wet.

I make turtles and people really seem to like them, I get frog requests alot too.  I don't mind folding them too much but they are somewhat difficult, a bit of careful work.  Right now I have a wholesale customer considering turtles and I've got my fingers crossed they will go for something else.  Of course, I have to admit, when it comes to wholesaling I'd rather get an order for scrunches because if I'm going to spit out heaps of dyes, that is going to be a fast and easy proposition.

I'd say that my favorite fold is no fold at all.  That is to say, I have more fun figuring out new things than any other time folding