I was promoted to purple belt two weeks ago, and still can’t really believe it. I don’t really know what to say about it other than that it didn’t improve my game at all. I’m still working on the same stuff I was as a blue belt. But that’s neither here nor there.
I’m very proud to be training in BJJ and, in particular, to be training at Foster BJJ.
What is interesting to me is that I have reacted completely differently to this promotion than the last one. I really look forward to getting back to class and working out. I’m sure that this has something to do with the fact that my back has been feeling pretty good lately, so I’ve been getting in consistently three days every week, and sometimes four.
In other news, I’ve dyed a few gis, and figured something out that, if I weren’t a little slow, is really pretty obvious. When you dye fabric in hot water, the heat from the water will affect the wax. Duh.
I’ve described batik a few times here before. Basically, batik is the process of painting or drawing with melted wax directly onto fabric. Melted wax is drippy, of course, and it bleeds into the fabric kind of like a magic marker can sometimes bleed into paper. So, there’s a knack to making clean lines, avoiding drips and getting the wax where you want it without having it end up where you don’t want it.
So, I was REALLY stoked after doing the green lantern symbol. I had the wax at a good, consistent temperature the entire time. It looks like it had penetrated the fabric really well. My lines were super clean and crisp and it was going to look badass! You can see in the picture to the right that the design is very clear. This was taken just after the initial dunk in the dye bath.
This is the final product. At first, I couldn’t figure out what happened. It looked so good, but then the wax just sort of wandered away from where it was supposed to be.
I was pretty bummed.
The color I dyed the gi is Dark Green PR31 purchased from Dharma Trading. The color looks great. It’s a deep, solid green that reminds me of my old ‘74 Beetle painted British Racing Green. Ultimately, I’m on the fence about whether I want to keep the design as it is, or put a patch over it. One way or the other, it’s a good gi that I intend to keep myself.
In the end, I’m pretty excited. As I said before, the wax application was tight and I’m very happy with that. And now that I know that I need to dye in cold water, I expect a really good result on my next project. I’m going to try a two color batik: the flash symbol. It’s a yellow lightning bolt on a white circle. And of course the bulk of the costume is red. So, I’ll put wax on what I want to stay white, dye it yellow, then wax on the lightning bolt, and then dye it red.
I’ve never done anything like this before, so I think I’ll start by trying to do the design on a patch. I’m confident that I can get the design clean and all of that. What’s unknown right now for me is how the red dye will react to yellow fabric. In other words, am I going to get a darker red because I’m dying on fabric that’s already yellow (which would be okay), or will it actually mix and end up orange (which would NOT be okay).
I’ll post some pics when I’m done. I have Fire Red PR10 dye already, which I think I’ll use. I ordered some Oxblood Red PR136 too. I really haven’t decided yet. Both look good, but I kind of like the name Oxblood Red. The yellow will be Bright Yellow PR2.
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