Any glaring reason I shouldn't try this?

[kateb]

In Kate Broughton's Textile Dyeing there are instructions for Finger-Pleated Silk which is kind of scrunch/chaos dyed black and discharged then re-tied and re-died and re-re-discharged, etc. Looks like burled wood or swirly granite or something. Very nice.

Any reason why I shouldn't tie a mandala then follow the same basic process, but with different (complementary) colors in the different dye baths? Even tying over the folded mandala each time?

Part of me loves feeling like a mad scientist and going "Yeah?! Well what happens when I do ***THIS***?!" as I throw a brick into the dye (or whatever). The other part of me thinks "there's another $3.55 down the drain."  

So if anyone sees any obvious reason this won't work, will you let me know? Thanks!

[deb]

I hpe you try it so we can see the results! And please be sure to take pictures of each step along the way so we can all watch and learn.

[tiedyejudy]

Part of me loves feeling like a mad scientist and going "Yeah?! Well what happens when I do ***THIS***?!" as I throw a brick into the dye (or whatever). The other part of me thinks "there's another $3.55 down the drain."  

So if anyone sees any obvious reason this won't work, will you let me know? Thanks!

When in doubt, I use a small piece of cotton fabric to test... much cheaper, and I'm not feeling stressed about the money loss.  We are part mad scientist, part artist/crafter... sometimes we need to try something we see or think of, just to find out what happens!  That's how we grow, and why we have something to post here!
Have fun,
Judy

[fiberartist219]

I don't think $3.55 is too much for a fun experiment.

I think you should do it. Worst case scenario, if you hate it, just discharge the whole thing and overdye to whatever you would normally do.

[Jaja]

I think it should work - you have just to decide how to "move" ties to achieve reasonable pattern. I've tried other technique on industrial dyed cotton - I've applied dyes first, tie it and discharge afterwards. It sounds like it don't make sense, but result was just fine (but I tried it on very old shirt, so it had holes even before the experiment had started)

BTW: We have here in CZ one virtual person, genius/scientist (he came to life in enthusiasts theater play): He used to say that in science it is valuable even to check dead-end roads and to tell to the others: "Not this way, friends, this is not good way to follow". /quote by Jara Cimrman/