[Nancy D.]

Hi:
I'm a weaver/dyer/fiber whatever person living in the Muskoka area of Ontario, Canada. Have to get out of the weaving business for back reasons, and am looking for interesting alternatives. I've been reading the posts for a couple of days and am impressed with the amount of accumulated info. I have lots of questions. Will compose them and post later.
Nancy

 

[cdb914]

Hi Nancy,
Welcome to the forum. I'm new also, and live in Oregon.

I, too, am seeking a new career working for myself.
Good Luck,
Carol

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

Nancy, welcome to the forums!
I'm sure your knowledge will come in handy around here.

Hi Nancy,
Welcome to the forum. I'm new also, and live in Oregon.

I, too, am seeking a new career working for myself.
Good Luck,
Carol

Welcome to you also!

 

[Solmu]

Hi:
I'm a weaver/dyer/fiber whatever person living in the Muskoka area of Ontario, Canada. Have to get out of the weaving business for back reasons, and am looking for interesting alternatives.

Interesting background - there aren't enough people crossing between different types of fibre manufacture if you ask me, so it should be interesting, if not caused by the most pleasant reasons.

I do wonder how much better t-shirt manufacture, etc. will be for back problems though. I can certainly see how weaving would be worse, but most of the processes people use here probably aren't a walk in the park either.

Are you more interested in sticking with designing, or is it also fabrication that interests you?

 

[Nancy D.]

tie-dyed - what do you think?

Solum:
Thanks for the welcome. Designing vs. fabrication? I don't rightly know. Here's what I have on hand. I have been dying my woven stuff for years, so I have Procion dyes and the needed auxilliaries, a dedicated dye area with table at appropriate height and sinks, textiles paints, handcarved stamps, Print Gocco. Given that, I thought the natural transition would be to tie-dyed t-shirts. What do you folks think. Am I betraying my age (yeah, early fifties) Is tie-dye at all popular now or is it just too retro - can you really have too much retro? I have developed colourways for my handwoven stuff which I thought I could interperet into the tie-dyed stuff and really make it represent the tourist area I'm from . My porposed market would be the local farmers markets and gift shops at local resorts. Does this seem at all sound or just a pipe dream.
Nan

 

[Solmu]

Re: tie-dyed - what do you think?

Here's what I have on hand. I have been dying my woven stuff for years, so I have Procion dyes and the needed auxilliaries, a dedicated dye area with table at appropriate height and sinks, textiles paints, handcarved stamps, Print Gocco. Given that, I thought the natural transition would be to tie-dyed t-shirts. What do you folks think. Am I betraying my age (yeah, early fifties) Is tie-dye at all popular now or is it just too retro - can you really have too much retro?

Cool, you've certainly got a lot of translatable equipment then.

As for tie-dye... I don't rightly know, but if I had to bet (i.e. would I invest in it for example) I'd say no. I like it and wear it a bit, but most people I know would call it "hippy crap" and not wear it.

It's very demographic dependent and, presumably, location dependent though. If it's something you're interested in doing I'd definitely look into it... see if there's a market for it. There are a couple of t-shirt manufacturers who do tie-dyed shirts, so they evidently perceive a market.

Basically I'm sceptical, but I wouldn't want to discourage you when I don't rightly know myself.

I think it's too risky an area to dive into without research and a business plan, but when it's something you want to do and have the equipment and the skillset for it would be silly not to consider it. I guess research could be a matter of doing a small run and seeing how they sell.