More Mantras, Basketball, and Fabric Dyeing

Last week's SOHO continued with the same Girl Talk activities as the previous week with the other set of ladies.  We all played the so-called "unfair game" which creates discussions around how to deal with stress or with things in your life being unfair. This group had a lot of fun with the "unfair game".

The group then created their mantra shadowboxes. Some of the mantras that we came up with were: be proud, be who you want to be, be unique, be smart, be bold, be sweet, be calm, be awesome, future champion, be yo self, and be brave! These turned out so beautifully.

The weather last Thursday was beautiful, so everyone decided we should take advantage of that. Everyone had snack outside in the VisArts courtyard. It was our first spring day outside together. We hula-hooped, played basketball, double-dutched, and then played a giant game of knockout! Some girls and women are excellent at basketball and they were able to show off their skills! And everyone had a good time even if basketball wasn't their strongest suit.

When everyone came back inside, we headed to the studio.  Last Thursday was fabric-dying night where pairs worked together to dye fabric for window curtains, closets curtains, and the backing of their quilted blankets. The technique we learned was called "ombre dying" where the color goes from light to dark. It's a pretty popular design concept these days. 

 

The process obviously involves some fabric dye so almost everyone decided to wear trash bags to try to keep their clothes clean and dye-free. Tesni had the dyeing system already set up (it's quite the site to see.  All the tables and a lot of the floor were covered in drop cloths and plastic.  Coat hangers suspended form the ceiling held their fabric which could then dip into the bucket filled with fabric dye. The ombre look is achieved by slowly raising the fabric out of the day so that the top stays lighter and the bottom gets dark and darker.  

 

This was especially nice because pairs had time in-between to chat while they waited during these intervals.  We used the ombre technique for all curtains. For the blankets, we dunked our fabric into the dye bath at the end and let it sit overnight.  This gave the cloth an all-over color, but wrinkles in the fabric still creates some very cool patterns in the fabric. On the way out, we had an impromptu trash bag fashion show and some girls wore theirs home!

After the girls went home, all of the SOHO big sisters went out for dinner and drinks at Heritage, a restaurant just down the street! It was so night so hang out with all the women outside of SOHO, have some fun and get to know each other. We have such an awesome, diverse, funny, close group this year!