Microdesign F: Chalk

This article is an example, method, technique or idea related to my concept of microdesign. If you’re new here, or want a refresher, read my article on the basis of microdesign.

As I’ve been mentioning here at 3stylelife, the photoshoot I recently conducted for FRINGE magazine was all about creating clothing designs using chalk.

Now, obviously I wasn’t talking about clothes made out of chalk, but rather using chalk to add design elements to existing clothes. If you look at the shoot photos on my Flickr, Escape 2 gives a nice view of the red, yellow, and green aggressive linear designs I used on the denim, and Love 1 gives the best shot of the yellow design on the gray thermal shirt (it says “love” in braille).

Why Chalk?

A few characteristics make chalk a great choice for microdesign:

• Chalk designs are washable. The most it took to remove any design was two washes, but most came out in a single wash. This means there’s no pressure when making new designs! Don’t like how something came out? Throw it in the hamper, and after your next round of laundry (OK, so it might be a week or two), it’ll be as good as new. In the parlance of microdesign, we say that our designs are reversible (imagine a big undo button).
• Even better, on many fabrics, chalk designs are directly erasable. I recommend a dry erase board eraser, as these retain less of the chalk dust (which might get deposited on your clothes while erasing, if you were to use a standard eraser). This means you can mess up during design and not have to completely start over. Using markers, if you make an errant mark, it takes significant time and effort to recover your work. With chalk, its a swipe of the eraser. In the pictures Love 2a and 2b, you can see me erasing the design mid-photoshoot!
• Finally, chalk is really, really cheap! This 52 piece box from Crayola is only $6 online! Even with shipping and handling that’s a great deal. Classroom chalk is even cheaper (often “free”, if you’re in college at least). Not a debilitating investment by any means.

Tips and Tricks

While the process of drawing on clothes with chalk is pretty straightforward (start drawing!), I’ve learned several things that make designing easier.

Priming

Anyone who has taught a class using an actual blackboard will likely know that a freshly washed blackboard actually doesn’t take chalk markings very easily.

This is because when writing, chalk particles (calcium sulfate) cohere to one another much more readily than they adhere to most other surfaces. Yes, I just talked about chemistry on this fashion blog.

To deal with this, teachers must “prime” new blackboards by rubbing chalk lengthwise (the way that would normally create large swaths of color) across the whole board. It won’t appear that much marking has occurred, but it deposits enough chalk that future writing has something to stick to, allowing for normal chalk activities.

This is not necessary for all fabrics; waffled fabrics, soft cottons and knits have a lot of holes and divots that readily trap chalk, making them easy to write on from the beginning. On the other hand, smoother fabrics; worn denim, leather, silks, and very flat fabrics (such as those in some dress shirts), may require some priming before you can produce consistent markings.

Fabrics

As I just mentioned, certain fabrics take chalking much more readily than others. Those same fabrics are also less happy to give away their chalk. While the denim that I designed like this:

washed off completely in one wash (and in fact faded a bit while wearing even), a design on a knit sweater actually took two washes to completely remove.

In general, the more wrinkles, holes, and divots a fabric has, the better it will hold and retain the chalk particles (meaning easier application, harder removal).

Wear and Tear

As mentioned above, some fabrics hold on to their chalk designs better than others. In general, wear and tear is greater on the pants, than on shirts. Anywhere that fabric folds or rubs against itself is likely to experience design deterioration faster than other. However, as long as you’re not actively rubbing the chalk off the clothes, I’ve found the designs do not have any problem lasting an entire day’s wear, though they are likely to fade in intensity (in terms of color).

I do not recommend folding any clothes with chalk designs on them before wearing; this almost surely will cause the design to be damaged, and worse, a copy of the image often forms on the other side of the fold. It would, however, be interesting to try and use this fact intentionally to create more complex designs.

Sidewalk Chalk vs. Classroom Chalk

I recommend picking up both (both are relatively inexpensive), but there are some important differences:

- In general, sidewalk chalk tends to be thicker, and thus it’s a little more difficult to get precise lines. Especially if you want some small design elements (like the dots on my braille shirt), use classroom chalk.

- Classroom chalk usually applies and erases easier than sidewalk chalk, especially the newer chalk products, meant to be dust free. Sidewalk chalk leaves a more robust mark, but is harder to apply, especially on flat fabrics, like the worn areas of denim.

- Usually, you can find sidewalk chalk in many more colors than classroom chalk, which is always nice.

Application Tips

Fabric is, by nature, fairly soft. Thus, it is necessary to lay your garment over something hard, a table or the floor works well. This will provide something to press the chalk against while designing.

Further, if you place something beneath the fabric, such as a book or a rod, you can get strong lines (like those on the denim). When the fabric has something to press against (some pattern of hard area), like the edge of a book, that region will retain a lot of chalk, while the surrounding cloth won’t be marked. This is very similar to stenciling processes.

Finally, since wrinkled regions are more able to absorb chalk, wrinkling fabric, then rubbing the chalk over the wrinkles can create interesting, tie-dye like designs. This happens automatically around the edges of pockets when working with denim.

Summary

Chalk designing is incredibly versatile. Because you can wear the same garment with two different designs on successive days, it really provides you with an infinite number of options. It’s cheap, relatively easy, and (in my opinion) a lot of fun to do.

It’s a perfect example of microdesign; a reversible, extendable process that can expand our wardrobes for very little overall cost. Give it a shot!

-III