Some of the best art made in Chattanooga is that which you can wear
The routes to crafty art are diverse. Some people apprentice with masters; others follow their hearts through a labyrinth of experimentation; still others acquire formal training and credentials. Julie Whitehead, BFA, studied fiber arts at Savannah College of Art and Design and worked with Shaw Industries in Dalton before turning to independent dye works.
“I didn’t expect to go into tie dye,” Julie says. “I wanted to do fine arts. At first, I painted scarves, but one time a lady asked me to create a duvet cover for her daughter. I enjoyed that project. And, there was no tie dyer in Chattanooga so I started doing that, adding my own style.”
At JBD Dye Worx, Julie creates all kinds of tie dyed clothing, from sundresses to sarongs. Her watercolor technique results in a style that is both delicate and bright. In comparison, a lot of other tie dye seems harsh or muddy. Julie doesn’t mind sharing some of the secrets of her clear colors.
“When people get brown tie dye, they’re forgetting the color wheel,” she says. “You think red/orange/yellow/green/blue/indigo/violet and you use colors next to each other that are near each other on the color wheel.”
Even with non-primary colors, Julie advises, keep the color wheel in mind when dying.“I’d put a red-brown by an orange-brown, but never next to a green,” she says. “They wouldn’t play nicely.”Like many artists, Julie has another job on the side. And she’s always hustling. Her followers can find her at the Chattanooga Market regularly this year.
She makes her customers’ favorites in large lots—dozens upon dozens of socks or kerchiefs. But for a large project, such as an art installation, she’ll take a commission. Making a work for a specific customer, the conversation starts with color.
“I’d ask about their favorite color, and to see some examples,” she says. Then, she’d get out her bags of swatches. Each color Julie creates has a specific formula of ingredients, and to keep an accurate record, she saves a dyed fabric sample with each ingredient list.
Next comes a discussion of pattern and fabric.
“Different fabrics allow for different techniques,” she explains. “I have to get the fabric and test colors on it, too—they come out differently on different fibers. Then I get the customer’s approval.”
Coloring is a messy process. While home tie-dyers may dip their fabric, Julie typically stretches it on a frame or on metal racks. For a large or individualized project, she may create a new frame to specific dimensions. A fairly small tapestry—she indicates her work table for scale—may take two hours to color and need six to eight hours to sit. The actual dying is the fast part, the culmination of the meticulous work of color design, selection and testing.
“It takes five hours to prepare a dye run of 40 to 50 items,” Julie says.While tie dying is a skillset anybody can learn, Julie says, it’s her perceptive eye for color that turns her work into art.
“I have a very unique outlook on color,” she says. “That’s why I got hired by the carpet company, for instance. Anybody can learn the steps to tie dye, but it takes that unique vision to make it different.”
It seems like half of Chattanooga owns something colored by Julie, and if you aren’t wearing her colors, you’ve probably seen them around. She also engages in collaborative projects, such as an installation at the public library, working with textile artist Hollie Berry Elizondo. Julie also takes on apprentices. All in all, she says, Chattanooga artists support each other, calling on one another for help when they need to draw on a different skillset.
Will Julie ever stop tie dying?
“My work tends to evolve,” she says. “But I’m comfortable where I am right now.”
Hope so—because Chattanooga wouldn’t be Chattanooga without Julie’s vibrant colors swirling past. Luckily, she loves her customers as much as they do her.
“The best part of my work is when somebody’s excited about what they bought from me,” she says. “When they say, ‘It makes me happy,’ it makes me happy in return.”
Remade with a Purpose
A follower of the winding path to wearable art is Tiffany Nation, owner of Learning2Green, a service that teaches people to make art from repurposed and recycled objects. Tiffany has been on the creative road for years, and she’s recently received attention for the steampunk-and-lace aesthetic of her “bullet” jewelry.
How did this fabulously Southern wearable come about?
“Late last year after visiting my gun range for practice, I was cleaning my stall and thought it a waste to just throw away all the empty casings,” Tiffany says. “I brought them home and started making my bullet jewelry.”
Tiffany, who describes her style as “Western punk or Steampunkish,” says she’s been making recycled arts for years, though not necessarily wearable art until her bullet jewelry line.
“[My interest in repurposing] started when I was young and my mother taught my sisters and me to repurpose things because we didn’t have a lot,” she says. “Fast forward, I grew up and got away from repurposing—easier just to throw away and be done—but after I divorced and money was tight, everything my mother taught me began to resurface. I combined that with my God-given creativity and unique style to help teach others how to repurpose things, too.”
Tiffany lets her inspiration grow from the materials she has on hand or seeks out to incorporate into her art. She starts out with the objects she wants to repurpose—belts, blue jeans, lace, keys or bullets—and then creates the final project. It’s almost like she’s giving herself an apprenticeship in one craft after the next, depending on what material she wants to incorporate next into her work.
Whereas Julie argues that most artists have a specialty they focus on, Tiffany’s eclecticism is part of her brand. So is her learn/teach approach: she’s constantly seeking out new techniques, learning them, incorporating them into her recycled arts, and then, in turn, teaching the techniques to other artists who make incorporate them into a completely different type of project.
“A lot of times, I might have to learn a new [technique] where I’m using brand-new materials, but I’m taking the mechanics of what I learn to apply to repurposed materials,” she explains. “I learn to do it, then apply it to repurposed materials later…mostly I’ve taught people wanting to come to do their own little things or find out other things—to expand on their knowledge of different media so they can apply those to repurposing.”
Now, for instance, Tiffany is studying encaustics, a hot wax painting technique. Using encaustic paint, made of materials such as beeswax and resin, Tiffany can more easily add both new and old items to a work of art, she says.
“Encaustic painting dates from ancient Egyptian times,” she says. “You have to heat it, and you can inlay flowers, papers, yarn or fabrics in it. I’ve begun to love encaustics because I can repurpose things into pictures.”Her art has a deeper meaning, too.
“I like the idea of taking the old and used and then using my creativity to turn it into something new, like God does with us,” she says. “He takes people where they are—which most of the time is used, broken or damaged—and turns them into someone new with a purpose.”
Where to Find Art to Wear
Right now, Tiffany’s work is on display at the AVA gallery on Frasier avenue. To book a class with her and learn to make repurposed jewelry, clothing or other items, visit learning2green.com. Find Julie’s radiant tie dye at the Chattanooga Market, open on Sundays.
To find a host of local crafts all in one place, visit the In-Town Gallery during Tennessee Craft Week, Oct. 7–14. The event will culminate on Saturday, Oct. 14, in a Wearable Art Trunk Show, featuring fiber art and jewelry.
“Models wearing elegant fine jewelry, soft handwoven wraps and colorful hand-dyed silk scarves and garments will circulate the gallery, showing the best ways to combine art clothing and one-of-a-kind jewelry,” the organizers write. “The Wearable Art Trunk Show will feature the work of craft artists Traci Paden (hand-dyed silk garments and scarves), Irene Catlin (handwoven wraps and shawls), and fine jewelry artists Eleanor Goodson, Marian Kern, Barbara Murnan and Carol Ott.”
Tennessee Craft Week will also feature other crafts, from holiday ornaments to ceramics, glass and wood crafts. How-to classes will help you hone your crafting skills, too. With Chattanooga becoming an artists’ haven, there’s no reason not to try your hand.