Friday, January 27, 2012

Right hand protective rubber gloves


One part of equipment that makes a lot of sense when dyeing fabric is a pair of protective rubber gloves. When I buy them, I buy a stack of packages, because they tend to be not really long lasting. But is there anybody out there who can tell me why it is always the right hand glove that gives up first?
Last time I was lucky – I was not dyeing black or dark blue, so the coloring of my hand was not quite as noticeable as it could have been:


I also have a very effective soap that removes color stains to a satisfying degree, and quickly. But after a couple of hours some of the stains reappear, and despite repeated applications it usually takes a couple of day until the last stains disappear entirely. Which results in wonderfully ‘empathetic’ questions of the type “What on earth did you do to your hands?” Especially when one had been dyeing dark colors. I haven’t taken any pictures of those conditions, but definitely could have taken a few very impressive shots after I had been removing the rubber bands from the T-Shirts that I dyed together with the children in kindergarten.
So, despite the fact that I have already trhown some of them out, I am again starting a collection of left hand protective rubber gloves that get left over. 


I always hesitate to throw them out together with their counterpart, because I keep thinking that next time it might be a left one of a pair that breaks first. And then I could pull one from my stack and not have to start a new pair right away. However, it hasn’t happened yet. And I haven’t been able to figure out why. Is it because I am right handed? But does that really matter when I am dyeing fabric? After all, I have both hands in the bucket, stirring, both are active – I really don’t understand. Of course, it could well be that the whole thing is subject to the same irrational and unexplainable laws that are the reason why a complete pair of socks is put into the washerd and only one of them re-emerges...?
In any case I have begun to think that it is too bad that this kind of plastic is not too durable overall and will disintegrate with time due to ultraviolet rays. Otherwise I could start using them to make art. As it is, I’ll just hang on to them for a little while. I suppose three left hand gloves as substitues are sufficient supply in case that a left hand glove might actually give out after all...

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