What's Been Dyeing in the Dungeon of Design? #2 | DYECEMBER Edition!

'TIS THE SEASON

I'm delighted to drop the second-ever edition of What's Been Dyeing in the Dungeon of Design? during the month of Dyecember (as I like to call it)! This holiday themed blog post features a behind the scenes look at this year's Christmas content in the making, a mini tour of the tie dye bar & studio's holiday decorations, and of course recent customs (plus — a peek at the gifts I made for friends & family this year!) and much more!

MERRY MINDSCAPES

They may not necessarily be the ugliest (depending who you ask), and they're definitely not sweaters — but these brand new Merry Mindscape T-Shirts are guaranteed to garner attention at your next holiday gathering that involves an ugly christmas sweater contest!

GROOVY GIFTS

Pictured above are just some of the tie-dyes I made to give as gifts to family & friends this year. 

SUPER-SIZED CUSTOM ORDER

(Pictured above: part of a large order for rainbow sunburst logo-style tie dye tees in progress) 

Yet another year of completely failing to crank out any Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Cyber Monday, or Christmas content in time for the holidays, but this year for good reason...thanks to a mega commission for a couple hundred custom tie dye tees!

It was such an honor to receive this opportunity and a pleasure to take on a project of this magnitude. What was already a time consuming undertaking for one single person as it was, and despite starting on in it in early November, completing it in time was challenged even further by a few unexpected hurdles and resulting hold-ups.

Ultimately, it all worked out well in the end. And I'm especially so grateful for the kindness and patience of the recipients throughout the entire process.

RECENT REQUESTS FOR MINDSCAPE REPLICAS

Since my previous WBDITDOD blog entry, I've had a few more requests to replicate some of my Mindscape designs in different sizes and/or shirt styles, below I'll share a few I remembered to snap some halfway decent pictures of.

This tank top here (pictured left) has come to be the chosen one as of lately, it seems. First, was a request to recreate it on a different size tank. But knowing how unpredictable the final outcome of this design tends to be - I made two in hopes of a higher chance that at least one would be similar.

Neither had much luck in the similarity department. In my opinion, at least. But I'm so grateful the person who'd requested it ultimately still liked and went with the one pictured to the left. 

Next, was a request to recreate that same tank top but on a long sleeve shirt. Now, I must say, I pleasantly surprised (dare I even say, impressed) myself with the outcome of this one! Honestly, I think it's even better than the original it was inspired by! Of course, that's all subjective, though.

CUSTOM BASEBALL JERSEY &  SURPRISE SALMON JERKY

Okay, this was seriously the highlight of my entire month. I'll try to keep this story short and to the point (but, fun fact: I have a bad habit of making short stories long instead).

So, anyway, this past month I befriended an awesome, fellow tie dye fanatic who'd sent me a baseball jersey to custom dye.

Initially, I thought that alone was exciting enough to include in my next blog post — because, hellooo, an ice-dyed baseball jersey!? That's cool as hell (and a first for me).

But alongside the blank, white jersey was a big 'ol bag of salmon jerky. SALMON JERKY!? As much as I love jerky, I'd never even heard of such a thing. It probably never would've crossed my mind that salmon jerky even existed otherwise.

Even amidst my state of jerky-induced-joy, I couldn't help but take notice of the sheer uniqueness of the gift. So naturally, I sent an email to inquire: "Is this from your own small business, or do you play a role in producing it, etc?" 

The answer was no to both. Meanwhile, the story behind this salmon jerky is even more incredible than I could've imagined. Turns out, it comes from the native Yurok tribe in Northern California.

And as a result of a government treaty which grants the Yurok tribe the exclusive ability to fish via netting, combined with the vast quantities of salmon required to produce the dried fish and jerky commercially (which can only be acquired via netting), the Yurok tribe are the sole producers of this salmon jerky (though I'm unsure if that's regionally, nationally, globally, etc - I'll look more into this and update to clarify if I find an answer).

As if all of that didn't already make this gift all the more special — there's more to the story. This is where it gets bittersweet, to say the least. I was told that due to the catastrophic effects of climate change on the region, the salmon population is dwindling and eventually will cease to be an available resource for the tribe — of which many of the elders still live on a centuries old diet of exclusively fish and eel to this day.

You can learn more about Klamath USA's smoked salmon and fish products at klamathusa.com (*UPDATE - as of February 2022, the website appears to not be up and running). Or, if you're local to, or will be visiting the Klamath, CA area, it can also be found at the Woodland Villa Country Market.

 

THE DUNGEON OF DESIGNS CHRISTMAS DECOR TOUR

Well, there's not much that could be added to this section by way of words. Below is essentially just a photo-dump / mini tour of the tie dye bar & studio's Christmas decorations!

CONCLUSION

And that's gonna do it for the second-ever entry of What's Been Dyeing in the Dungeon of Design? The DYECEMBER Edition! Stay tuned for the next installment (just bookmark or favorite this blog's homepage or something, bc I don't do email newsletters at this point in time)

The next entry will feature even more examples of my attempts at mimicking mindscapes, more behind the scenes content — plus, whatever else I deem interesting enough to share that happens in the meantime!

OH! And all of my fellow tie dye lovers, this ones for YOU: Check out my new blog post featuring an in-depth review of the NEW Dharma Trading Co. dye color, Magenta Galactica! Or, explore all of my content about Fiber Reactive Dyes specifically — including swatches of my entire dye collection! 

Also, don't forget to check back every Monday to discover a fresh batch of Psychedelic Mindscape designs for #MINDSCAPEMONDAY!

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