Saturday, August 23, 2008

Sun Stained Shirts - For Employees only


I was fighting with an employee over a sun stained shirt that had been in the window of the store as a display. Over time the sun drains the color from the fabric and depending on how it hangs there are bleached out areas on the shirt. In this case it was a folded shirt, so the stained area was in a rectangle on the front of the shirt. Needless to say, we decided this effect was desirable and thus the search for the perfect sun bleaching inks began. I checked out Dharma Trading and found a sun painting technique, then quickly drove to the place and picked up several of the inks in white, black and red. I also decided bleach and other chemicals should be considered to create this non-ink effect. Discharge inks aren't being considered here because of their overwhelming potential toxicity and the requirement that the shirts would need to be washed before they can be sold. Here is a photo of 3 prints with different chemical/ink mixtures that I am hanging in the sun to see how they work out.