Cary's first post:
This is my first blog post on Planting Mangos. I'm honored and really excited to write one for my lovely wife! We are obviously obsessed with arts and crafts. We are trying to expand our t-shirt business so we attempted to make galaxy shirts for the first time. These were pretty intimidating to even start making because I had never painted on a shirt before. Once we got into it and figured out some cool techniques it was fun and the shirts came out amazing!
Supplies:
Solid black t-shirt
Spray bottle containing 1/3 bleach + 2/3 water
Acrylic paint (more colors = more options in outer-space)
Fabric medium textile paint (mix with acrylic paint, this allows the acrylic to stick on the fabric)
Paintbrushes, sponges + toothbrush
Drop cloth (something to catch all the paint + bleach mixture that doesn't make it onto the shirt)
Once we had all our supplies out and the work station ready, it was GO TIME! We started with the back of the shirt first...So we could really perfect our methods to make the front the best side! First we used the bleach solution in the spray bottle and made large spraying circles to create the focus of the shirt. The bleach turns the shirt to a white/orange/pink color depending on how concentrated the solution us.
Next I went a little crazy with the toothbrush and flicked stars of every color on my shirt. (Dip the toothbrush in the paint and flick it wherever you want little stars on your shirt!) I learned to not do as many different color starts so soon...but I do love stars!
My creative wife really got my brain going when she mixed colors together with the sponge brush and made big areas of color on her shirt. She then hit the spots of color with the bleach over top. BRILLIANT! From there we began to use the bleach on top of colors used to create more colors within the bleach.
Experimenting with colors!
The finished back of Tyler's shirt!
So, after letting the back of our shirts dry, I thought of even more things we could incorporate into our shirts. On the front of mine, I started with a bleach stripe going across my shirt. From there I added earth, a moon, stars, a supernova and the sponge color bleach method. To put the finishing touches on my galaxy, I flicked white stars everywhere!
Adding planets, shooting stars & supernovas!
The finished front of Tyler's shirt!
After we finished our shirts, we let them hang dry. The next day, we washed them on a low setting and then dried them. The colors didn't fade and for the most part, the shirts looked exactly same!
I am so pleasantly pleased with the shirts! They really turned out magnificent and we have received requests from people who want to buy them from us! Just like tie-dying, you have the freedom to be experimental and creative! Just splash color anywhere and if you don't like it just spray some bleach on it and create something else. There is no such thing as a mess up while making these. Since I tend to be OCD at times, this is very therapeutic for me! It allows me to let go of my crazy structure and run in any direction I want to!
Here's the link to the website that originally gave us inspiration for galaxy shirts:
http://angelszafranko.blogspot.ca/2012/02/galaxy-shirt-tutorial.html
Thanks for tuning in! We look forward to making galaxy shirts with anyone who's interested!
-Cary
