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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Children at the Medfield Public Library customized their clothes with pops of color at the library’s tie-dye event in the Craft Room. Led by instructor Brenda, children transformed their plain white clothes into beautiful, colorful creations. “There’s no such things as a bad tie-dye, just one you might not have planned on,” Brenda reminded the tie-dye artists. Brenda, her husband, Roger, and daughter, Brittany, assisted the event-goers by giving the white clothes a pre-dye soak and helping them tie the clothes to achieve the design they desired.
The children could choose from designs like the classic bull’s-eye, a heart, fireworks, diagonal tie-dye, or any random pattern. After they put on smocks and plastic gloves, the children also had just about every color of the rainbow to work with as they sponge-pressed the dye into the clothes they brought with them. Eight-year-old Ryleigh of Norfolk immediately knew to tie-dye her white shirt dark blue and bright red to show her devotion to the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox, while her six-year-old sister, Abigail, took her time to plan and execute her color scheme.
Seven-year-old twins Vivian and Lilith of Medfield sported their own tie-dye shirts at the event as they set out to make new ones. Although the sisters are similar in appearance, their shirts are completely unique to them, as one chose to make a cool-toned bull’s-eye, while the other chose a warm-toned heart pattern. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Sasha of Medway and seven-year-old sister, Nadja, both used all the colors of the rainbow to liven up their white shirts.
As the kids worked deeply in concentration, Brenda talked about her unusual introduction to tie-dye. Once a daycare teacher, Brenda had her students call her “Ms. White,” and she wore completely white outfits until her students could correctly remember her name. Although clever, Brenda ended up with a lot of dingy, white clothes after the first few weeks of the school year, so a parent suggested to simply tie-dye them. Since then, Brenda has tie-dyed anything possible, including baby onesies and sports jerseys with various teams’ colors.
When each child finished their tie-dye shirt, Brittany sealed the shirt up in a plastic bag with instructions to let it sit overnight and wash out the remaining dye in the sink.
The relaxed and informal event gave kids the opportunity to create their own customized shirts and inspired them to explore the endless possibilities of tie-dye.
