I have been working on learning different resin techiniques. One that I have yet to figure out is the “Tie Dye” look that I have been seeing more often these days. Guys like Longtoe are putting out amazing work. I cant quite figure out how they are doing it. My thought was that it had to be an inlay or dying the cloth but from what I hear it is resin work. Tried searching archieves but only found silk inlay information.
Can anyone provide tips on how to acheive this tie dye resin look?
In looking at his insta I didn’t see any tie-dye, but for the others it looks like he’s using airbrushes on some, foam stains on some, and opaque/tint laminations. A couple of them even look like inlays.
That’s in the lamination, alright. Not really a tie dye, per se. It looks like the glasser folded the cloth in half, hit it with their resin and then unfolded to lay on the blank. But more likely its be real careful application of resin from half a dozen squeeze bottles.
Yea, I cant quite tell if it would be possible to do with just resin. I think you would need a picture of what you would be trying to create and just try and follow accordingly. Posted some examples below
You could search around sways and find info on topics like these…or better yet get out in the shop try some new stuff…mess some stuff up. Maybe Something cool and unique will come of it. I doubt anyone with work like that simply asked someone hey how do you do this exactly? Every step i must know. Please tell me how.
A few months ago I had a conversation with a glasser who does something very similar. He described it as laying the fiberglass cloth over large piece of cardboard. (I’m guessing anything would work that you can throw away because it’s also going to get stained in the process). He would mix pigment dispersions with acetone which kind of creates something similar to a watercolor wash. Then he would stain the cloth with it in an artsy way. The acetone evaporates pretty quickly leaving the fiberglass dry. The cloth would be then placed on top of the blank and glassed with clear resin. Those Longtoe boards look like the cloth was folded and the color washes soaked all the way through creating the tye dye look. Then the cloth was unfolded and glassed. I figure all this is done in a poly lamination. It may be doable with epoxy I guess.
This is what I have heard as well. You are basically doing a dye job on the cloth. I guess those little boards need something to jazz them up a bit. I’m into clears with wood and solids or maybe what Ole and Tom Petersen used to cal “Flavor of the Month”. Lowel
Some years ago you commented that “shape comes first”, which captured perfectly for me the sentiment I had been driving towards at the time. It’s been a long time since I did any color on one of my builds. I don’t even do logos for my personal boards.
Since I got back into shaping in the 90’s I have followed the form and function ideal. I remember hearing about one of Phil’s boards being exhibited at some museum back East(New York??). The museum’s comments were that it was a classic example of "Form and Function ". I have always liked the Classics; Phil, Renny Yater and Ole. They don’t need to get your attention with color or unique art work, aesthetics etc. Their form was always what grabbed you and you knew the minute you saw one of their boards; It was made to ride. In you minds eye you could see yourself out at your local break on that board. Even wall hangers should be rideable. Color work for me is just the occasional "challenge or fun project. The only boards I have ever been truly embarrassed by we’re boards I shaped poorly. The color work I did on them to cover up my mistakes don’t make the shape any better. Nor the ride any smoother. A red board might look fast, but if shaped poorly can be a real dog. Having said that though; I have had ride reports on a couple of boards that I thought were terrible, but the report was positive. One guy rode a three stringer of mine at Honolua Bay. Rails were terrible on that board. The guy said it was the fastest board he ever rode(he was a very good surfer). Yes I stand by my motto; “Shape comes first.” Lowel
