Vanessa Zanin folded a small T-shirt in half. “You make a rectangle,” she explained to Bode Kroll-Rosen, age 5. “Then you make triangles.” Zanin folded the shirt as one would fold a flag. After demonstrating, Zanin undid her folds, backed up and suggested that Bode and his grandmother, Aileen Kroll, try it themselves.
Folding is the first part of the tie-dye project that Zanin led for the Artful Afternoon on Sunday, August 4. Standing in front of the Community Center, with multiple stations set up for folding, soaking and dyeing, Zanin, and a crew of Community Center employees, walked all comers through the intricacies of the fabric art. She will be running a second workshop on Sunday, August 11 at Springhill Lake Recreation Center.
Instructors talked about fan-folds, spirals, sunbursts and more complex stitched folds. The glory of it all is that the process is hidden. Once the folds are in place and the rubber bands wrapped around the fabric, the dyeing is done by squirting. Participants can’t see what their completed works will look like until everything is unwound and the dye is set. Even for the artist, the work is a mystery.
Dyeing appeals to her science teacher roots, Zanin said. She had been a science teacher in Prince George’s County Public Schools until 2019 when she crashed on the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. “I was hospitalized for traumatic brain injury. I did eventually get therapy, but it was delayed due to Covid,” she said.
Zanin said she is still recovering and finds art, music and nature very helpful. “In February 2023 I started helping with the Winter Youth Musical costumes. I’ve been having fun getting back into teaching and being involved in the community.”
The tie-dye workshop was easy for bringing in all levels of expertise. It was also an opportunity for Zanin to bring two of her hobbies together. “I’m the founding trumpet player in the Greenbelt Honk! Situation. Our uniform is tie-dye, so that’s fun to just keep bringing joy visually and musically,” said Zanin. The tie-dye flags that Honk! will use in the Labor Day Parade were created on the Community Center lawn during the workshop.
Zanin has plans for other workshops including a felting project she has already scheduled for September. “I want to bring joy, confidence and skills to all,” she said. “I teach art at the Community Center, textiles, sewing, needle felting and tie-dye.”
