You know I love Red Dirt!

I named my book and my blog, Red Dirt In My Soul.

But, not only is Red Dirt in my soul… it is also…

in my laundry.

Yeah.

Good ol’ red dirt.

It stays in laundry Very Well.

So well, in fact, that for years people have made Red Dirt Shirts of one sort or another.  I have one… the softest shade of Red Dirt, with a simple line drawing of a horse on it… made by friends.  Kinda like tie dying but with dirt!

It works.

This idea has been hanging around since last summer… and I’ve wanted to get more creative with it.  Knowing someone’s gonna beat me to it… because, honestly, it’s not that original…

I wanted to step it up a bit.

I didn’t want to just tie dye or wash it in gorgeous red mud… I wanted to CREATE!

So my sister-in-law, C., and I went to work!

I wanted paw prints on my shirt.  Which is easy enough to do in August.  I made some mud… had my dogs walk through it and over the t-shirt I’d laid on the ground.  Their paw prints looked like smudges.  Ugly!  Not paw print-like at all!

Fine.

I’d paint my own.  Then I painted some Indian pictographs.  Then I painted some feathers.  Then I painted some “bead-like” dots on the sleeve.   I tried some arrowheads, some yucca… Some wonderful red chugwaters…  I was just playing.  Test-driving the intensity and detail I could get with Red Dirt.

C., on the other hand (who is a MUCHMUCHMUCH better artist than I) went for a finished look with her first t-shirt.  She used leaves and stenciled around them.  We left a clean area for a “logo” or nametag…

All with Red Dirt.

My mind started racing with all the possibilities… because… after we had painted on the mud… and let them dry.

And washed them.

Twice.

The Red Dirt was STILL THERE.

Not as bright… but the intensity, the saturation of the dirt… translated very well.

So, fast forward 6 months… and I FINALLYFINALLY get around to creating my “serious” t-shirt.

And it has to do with the photo below.

And I think I shall leave my t-zer at that!

****

March 3, 2011   After Birth

March 3, 2010   Wordless Wednesday – “Going, Going, Gone”

March 3, 2009   Heifers 2

March 3, 2008   Scrambled