The Office Party -- Studio Style

Monday night we put a different spin on the holiday office party. Two years ago, my husband added a part-time job to his full-time work as a small manufacturer. He works with a great group of women, so we invited them over to dye silk scarves. Yup, they made their own Christmas gifts, and we didn't have to wrap a thing.

We used the 8mm habotai silk scarf blanks from Dharma Trading Company. Before everyone arrived, I ran the scarves (two per person) through the rinse cycle in the washer to dampen them so they were ready for simple twist, tie and clamp resists.

Just before everyone arrived, I mixed up a selection of Colorhue dyes for their first scarf. Since these instant-set silk dyes don't need to be steam-set, it was an easy choice for a casual party. Colorhue dyes are available from Ginny Eckley and also from Dharma.

We dipped their second scarves in the indigo dye vat I set up before Thanksgiving.

Both of these dye methods give almost-instant results and only need to be rinsed, not steamed. Since I don't have running water in the studio, I took their scarves into the house to rinse while Bill distracted the girls with pizza.

Before dyeing, everyone wrote their initials on their scarves with Identipen fabric markers, so it was easy to sort out the scarves when people were ready to leave. Bill and I spent a few more minutes in the studio using up the rest of the Colorhue dyes and cleaning up. And he did the rinsing on our clean-up scarves and all the clamps. I don't know how you wrap that, but it's a great gift!

So that was our office party. Nobody had to buy a new outfit to wear or try to talk over loud music. I really enjoyed myself, and I hope they did, too!