What is geode tie dye?

I first saw this style of tie dye from a creator who was dyeing fabric to sew reusable pads and cloth diapers. She was tying multiple concentric lines with sinew on bamboo sherpa fabric, and I thought it was really beautiful and wanted to try it myself.

At first, it’s difficult to get a feel for how tight the ties need to be if you want the lines to stay crisp without blotchiness between them. The tied item ends up looking like an octopus with a bunch of tentacles poking out everywhere.

It’s a time consuming method, but a lot of people enjoy the results and the ways the colors will split when it’s ice dyed or when someone uses the cold mist method.

I usually ice dye geodes, and I get the best results when I apply ice and dye to one side, let it melt, then flip it over and apply more ice and dye to the other side. The results end up being more even across the whole item, especially if it’s a shirt. The parts of the shirt that face up and get the most contact with the ice and dye usually look the best, so doing two applications helps even that out.

There’s also a lot of benefit to the cold mist method in how fast you can flip the item and apply dye from different directions.