Need Help Learning Mudmee

[alex1910]

Hi, I am very interested in learning how to do mudmee tie dying. I am new to all this, so since I am a noob I am trying to find step by step tutorials which would explain all this. I've done some minimal traditional American tie dye but I am trying to find a crash course in mudmee. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated 

[ktaltre]

There doesn't seem to be any tutorials or courses on this way of tying and dyeing - not that I've been able to discover.

I believe that mudmee tiedye is mostly if not totally manufactured in Thailand and/or southeast Asia.
Mudmee seems to be characterized by a different color sense than American traditional tiedye.
The actual tying seems to be fairly traditional; I see a lot of fan folds and circles.
I think there may be more labor involved in some, if not all, mudmee. The actual working tiedye laborer is probably pretty fast.
They may use a different class of dye also, but I don't know that.
There could be some color discharge going on too and then overdying, but I really don't know.
It often seems that one color is being applied on one side of a fold and another on the other side.
The colors often seem to be carefully applied for certain effects; but in some pieces, colors seem applied more randomly.

There is someone on this forum, tying in the US, who has posted work that I thought approaches the mudmee sensibility - don't remember who, sorry.
With trial and error, and studying internet pics, one could maybe get close to the mudmee look.
k. taltre

[alex1910]

Yeah  it seems really hard to find. Im looking to make something similar to this:
http://www.thaidye.com/item/t_shirts

Can anyone help me maybe think of ingredients and a basic tie method that would produce something similar to this?

[ktaltre]

Now that you've gotten me thinking about mudmee (again), the shapes and fanfolds may be sewn.
I believe this is called mokume or mokume gane, a shibori technique. This also seems to be a Japanese technique for working with metal.
The circles for said shirt are very tightly sewn (or tied) and the color carefully applied.
The bottom of the shirt is either stitched or fan folded and the color carefully applied.
The rest of the shirt seems to be scrunched for the color application or the color was applied randomly.
Trying this will be a trial and error process for someone new to tiedyeing.
You might get the effect on the first try, but you will probably go through a number of shirts to get where you want.
k. taltre

[ktaltre]

Mudmee work may start out as black fabric, tied or sewn, discharged and then overdyed.
I found this sentence out there on the web about mudmee:
"The use of black as a base color results in unusual tones."
After looking at many garments on "that website", I think I can see that effect.
And I think maybe the goods at "that website" are dyed with fiber reactive dyes - they seem to talk the natural talk, but who knows.
If they are discharging, I wonder what they use to discharge with.

The mudmee artists and marketers seem to be holding their process close - keeping it a big secret.
Western tiedyers were (and many still are) secretive about process until a few entrepreneurs made videos of their processes, bless their little tiedyed hearts! And of course, the you tube phenomenon really helps with learning tiedye (and anything else, ha).
k. taltre

[ktaltre]

Hello again - been working on the mudmee conundrum.
Have done a few shirts, will post about that later.
Tonight I found Merlin's blog.
There's some pictures of the process down near the bottom of this page:
http://www.thaitiedye.com/page/3/
It isn't much, but if you go look, there is a picture of a tie and a picture of the dye in self heating pots.
Well, we know that the tying is meticulous.
And now we know that the Thais use a dye that has to be heated - whatever kind of dye that might be.
I also read a sentence somewhere else tonight that said mudmee starts out black.
For what it's worth.
k. taltre

[Jaja]

After seeing these bags, looks like they start each time with solid color, that is easy to discharge. After discharge w/o untieing they apply multiple colors to previous ties.

[tiedyejudy]

I'm wondering how they would neutralize the discharge medium completely without untying?  I would be concerned that some of the medium might creep into crevices that maybe the neutralizer wouldn't get to... but you may be on to something, Jaja.  I do know from past projects that colors do come out looking different applied to discharged black, but I have yet to figure out what pink they use to get that glow!  Ah, if only I had more hours in the day!   

[ktaltre]

We don't know what discharge medium the Thais use; probably doesn't need to be neutralized.
We also don't know what class of dye they use, so they may have access to a color we don't with our fiber reactive dyes.
Also, we are looking at their work on our screens; the actual work may be less luscious or even more luscious than we know.
I'm working on some mudmee and will post soon..........
k. taltre
Just posted in "Dyeing Techniques" under "mudmee techniques"