Want directions on how to do bleach art? Scroll to the bottom!
Meanwhile -
Learning is hard. Or, it can be. I tend to be pretty hard on myself, which isn't always great for learning. I tend to love a good multi-hour project so that I can get the thrill of investigating it, be able to tell a story about it, and then move on. I figure the world is so full of things to learn and explore, why would I stop to be an expert in only a few things? It's my main criticism for Mozart or Phelps or Julia Child. Ha! I love me some classical music, am glued to the TV when the Olympics are on, and would absolutely love to have half the skills of ole JC.
Part of rotating through projects so quickly is also a sort of avoidance of learning, truly learning and evolving alongside your project or passion or purpose. Evolution as a person means loving yourself for who you were and loving who you will become. Historically, if I am not good at something I will get super hard on myself and default to some of my body-shaming mind tricks. I'm no longer dealing with a fullblown eating disorder, but eating disorders leave scars and patterns. I will start to pinch the fat on my body without realizing it when I get upset. We are our own worst critics and I am no exception to the rule.
Living through Covid put that critical voice to the test. With so few normal outlets for joy and distraction, I was forced to sit and think about where my mind spent the most of its time. The answer was in the 'well you fucked up' box. It affected my job, my personal life, and definitely contributed to feelings of depression. I ended up reading a book on emotions (Master your emotions - highly recommend this easy read) which really helped me to see things differently, alongside some work at school. My main goal coming out of that self-work, was to cultivate a better inner monologue while I am learning (which is always). So, bring on a craft sesh.
I love a personal touch to a gift. I may not always do the personal touch, but I want to. I saw bleach art somewhere random, maybe tiktok?, and wanted to give it a shot for a Crew reunion with some of my former teammates. I somehow nailed the T-shirts, see below. (We love a good family pic.) It's a glass of wine with two oars going through it. I admit, I was not only flabbergasted it worked, but also pleased that they liked them so much.
Okay so now it's coming up on Christmas time and I want to do more gifts. I buy so many (hugely oversized!?) t-shirts and try to do the same art. I get fancy with the cutouts and start bleaching away. I made a tiktok vid to show the journey. Like, literally no one cares. I got all fancy with the hand surprise and the jumping.
Crickets. This was a fantastic opportunity for my critical voice to jump in with 'you're not worth it' and 'how embarrassing' and give me time to dig into why my body sucks etc etc.. And if I am honest, I can hear the whispers. But I am really focused on reducing the volume of that voice, because it takes away the future. It takes away the creativity and love I have for life when all I can think about is how much people will hate it or how much I hate my body in that moment. So, I bought more shirts, this time black. And I have to say, mucho mejor! See some updated designs as proof! And, below, are some easy directions on how to do your own bleach art for fun. HIGHLY recommend for all you folks who like instant gratification (like me). I'll be working on food-related designs which will go into my shops. See you soon. Muah!
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING YOUR OWN BLEACH ART T-SHIRTS:
Have t-shirts. I recommend darker shirts because the bleached effect is much easier to see. The grey shirts and these black shirts are the shirts that worked the best for me and were truest to size!
Next, you need a spray bottle. I had one I used to use for plants and filled it with half bleach, half water. (Make sure to keep this somewhere safe so kids and pets don't get to it!
Now you need a safe space. I used the garage. I used to lay out paper to do all this but got lazy. So just make sure you don't have anything important laying around nearby, and I recommend taking soapy/ wet paper towels afterwards to clean the space.
Lay out your shirts and scrunch or twist if you don't want to cut out shapes.
If you DO want to cut out shapes, ideally out of cardboard or leftover mail you don't need or mind getting ruined by bleachy water.
Lay down your patterns, spray a few sprays from about a foot away and then watch. Take tongs or plastic gloves to remove the cutouts so you can see things start to bleach. I reco a wait for like 20 minutes.
Put all the shirts in cold water to stop the bleaching process. I ran everything through a brief rinse cycle.
Wash your shirts with detergent and wear!
Comments