Does anyone have any tricks for containing the mess?

[digitalcanvasimages]

The reason I am posting this is because I just had an "intelligent" moment. It'll cost me later. I decided to put my blender in a jelly roll pan, and set my jar of dye in it when I am mixing. It is stiff and keeps the dye off the counter, and I can rest my measuring spoons and rags in it too.

It made me wonder what other things I can do to make cleanup easier and save me time.

[tiedyejudy]

I'm lucky.  I have a rinse sink in my laundry room, and I do my mixing and dyeing on the washer/dryer.  I have a collection of old t-shirt rags I use to mop up spills, and I keep some terry cloth towels handy to dry my tools on.  For direct application dyeing, I generally use some paper towels under the item I'm dyeing, replacing them as I flip the item to dye the other side.  Sometimes I use a double rack I made from closet racks (plastic coated with a lip on one side, two wired together to make it like a box).  I can dye an item with lots of resist areas with both hands freed up to manipulate the item I'm dyeing.  Here is a picture of the rack:

It's also good for allowing pre-soda soaked items to air dry a little before I dye them.  I put the lid from a plastic storage bin underneath to catch drips, then I can just rinse and wipe that afterward.

[Stone Cold]

I use a painters drop cloth. just cut to size of table, and counter and I'm good to go. Wipes clean easily, or it's actually cheap enough and there is so much of it, I sometimes just throw it away.......

[digitalcanvasimages]

Good stuff! Thanks!