Very small loops can be made, as mentioned above, by pressing out the cloth with a wooden pin (or toothpick) and tying tightly around this, leaving in the pin until after the dyeing is completed.
Skilful workers can tie quite small loops by placing a bead, or dried pea, or piece of gravel in the cloth and tying the cloth tightly around this. It is best, always, to have something of the sort, pin or bead, to act as a centre, or else the knot, after tying, is very apt to slip off, and spoil the pattern.
The design for this sort of work should be carefully planned beforehand, and marked out on the cloth with pencil or chalk. For, with small loops like this, the interest is more in the pattern formed by them than in the changes and contrasts in color between the different tied parts and the rest of the cloth.
A very interesting specimen of work done in this way by Miss Mary Grey is shown in Fig. [7].
Tied in Large Knots and Loops.—It is hard for a Western craftsman to obtain sharp, well-defined knots by this method, of a diameter of less than half an inch or so. Usually, indeed, it is too much of a bother and nuisance to try any knots covering less than an inch and a half. From this size, up to fifteen and twenty inches in diameter, will be found the vast majority of all American work. The reason is very simple. The trouble of tying a knot covering five inches is very little more than that for a half-inch knot, indeed far less for most people, while the large knot produces an immediate effect not equalled by a dozen of the latter. Furthermore, with large knots, big bold designs can be produced, which, with pleasant and skilfully selected colors, give results far more striking and effective than can be shown by the small knots, no matter how carefully carried out. On the other hand, intricate and carefully planned designs can be worked out with small knots, which cannot be attempted with the large ones.
For designs with large knots, beside the cloth, which should be soft and free from dressing, and a ball of soft thick twine or better, of cheap cotton binding tape, half to three-quarters of an inch wide, it is well to have a supply of large glass beads, of marbles of different sizes, and, if these are not easy to get, of pebbles, beans, hazelnuts, and the like. These are not always to be used, but in most cases it makes a more interesting contrast to have the centre of the tied spot come out dark, with the lighter parts, more or less shaded, around it. That means that the centre must be exposed to the dyestuff by being stretched out over a marble or pebble, while the parts around it are tied up. And the tying, too, is greatly facilitated by having a hard centre to work against.
By tying around one marble first, and then putting in another and tying round that, a series of concentric rings will be formed, the black rings showing where the cloth, covering the marble, has been exposed, and the light-colored part showing where it has been covered by the tape or string.
FIG. 7—SAMPLE OF TIED AND DYED WORK, “TIED IN BANDS,” WITH INCIDENTAL KNOTS. BY MISS MARY GREY
As before, the design, if at all elaborate, should be marked out beforehand on the open cloth, and the parts tied in accordingly. Much experience is required to know just how tight to tie the tape so as to get a desired effect with each particular kind of cloth, and each class of dyestuffs. In general, with small knots the string should be tied very tight, or otherwise no effect is produced at all. The larger the tied parts, however, the more pains should be taken to have the cloth folded before tying, so that some of the color may work down through the folds past the tape, and thus produce shaded effects, which may be of great beauty (see Plate IV, Fig. [a]). Of course, in this, much depends on the cloth; a thick heavy calico tying with difficulty, but not letting the dyestuff soak through; while soft open materials like scrim or cheesecloth, for instance, must be tied much tighter, or the color will work through so much as to spoil the design.