We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Burke Betty Prime recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin Burke, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Trial and error seems to be the way in creative arts. There are times when we see pictures of the first pieces we made and it strikes us both how far we have come. We have loved every garment we have made and like nothing more than when people tell us how much they love something they purchased. We had a lady come into our vending booth last night and said that sometimes she wears her shirt so often that her husband jokes, “Are you ever going to wear something else?” It feels like a job well done. It’s a job we love doing and when you hear back from folks like this it makes it that much more rewarding. I think that color theory is the thing that can really make a piece stand out. I think we have learned that less is more and to soften color choices. Instead of including multiple color families it is often much more striking to stay within a single color family or to use accent colors sparingly. However, one of the cool things of being a maker is that changes from time to time and you can see different, “eras,” so to speak in our work. The obstacles that keep you from growing and learning are often the business aspects that are required. Paperwork and taxes and inventory and scheduling are not much fun but make all the difference at the end of the year to determine if you were successful in terms of making a profit or not. It is also difficult to try and predict the unpredictable. There are so many variables of live vending that are simply out of your hands or things you could not possibly know ahead of time. .

Kevin Burke, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are a husband and wife duo that creatives custom dyed clothing and home goods. We think of ourselves as non traditional tie dye artists. The differences between traditional tie dye and what we make are massive. We use organic forms instead of repeating patterns. We do not dilute dye into water to create a single color we keep the dye in powder form where it can break up into its compound colors to create almost water color like effects. We are proud of the fact that our pieces can be dressed up or down and are right at home at a concert or a dinner party. They really do tend to reflect the personality of the person who chooses them. There is a certain magic that occurs in the materials we use and the processes we implement that create this thing that goes beyond what we could create on our own. There is magic in every piece. Betty spends a great deal of time to find quality clothing, or blanks as they are known, for us to work with. We feel that it defeats the purpose to create a piece of wearable art on a substandard blank. We search for material that dyes extremely well, wears well, fits great, and stands the test of time. This is our passion project that we fit into our lives. We both have full-time jobs and many other responsibilities. However, The Charleston Dye Lab has become a beloved part of our lives. We have met some of the most amazing people while pursuing this dream.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We have learned many things during this journey of ours. We have both always valued art, antiques, and unique objects from all different places. We both collect and appreciate many different things and often do not hesitate to spend money on things we find special. Not all people appreciate this. We understand that sometimes you just need a cheap pair of shoes or a hat that is just a hat to keep the sun off your face so you can avoid over exposure to the sun that day. It has been interesting to learn that not all people share the appreciation of artistic endeavors.. There are many people who will come in, and even if they don’t buy anything or even ever consider it, they can appreciate the time, effort, and talent it takes to create something. On the flip side, there are people who just don’t get it. They say, “I can get a skirt at Walmart for $11.” This isn’t that. We don’t sell $11 skirts.

I think something that is helpful and supports artists is just coming out to where artists gather and vend or sell their art and interact. Ask questions, give compliments, and engage. There are many times we have come home from a market and not made much money but had these great interactions with people and it can keep you going. At the end of the day, sometimes, just knowing that people like what we do is just as important as cashing a big check.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

We do get a lot of questions or comments about setting up at markets. It does take a lot of effort, money, and time to be at these events. We love live vending. We do not have a physical shop. We only set up at markets. I guess to an outside it might look crazy to choose to follow through on doing it. I’m always proud of us that we did it. We did not just talk about it or consider it or google it a few times. We actually did it and it has been so rewarding. There are times when we are loading the truck late on a Friday night or pulling out of the drive way at 5:30 in the morning I ask myself, “Are we crazy?” But then we almost always go have a blast, meet the coolest people, make a few bucks (sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t…it’s a game of averages).

I have also learned through meeting all of the other creatives we have come across and bonded with…there are a lot of different ways to make a dollar. It’s always so cool to walk through a venue and see how many different approaches there are. There are as many different ways of doing things as there are vendors…we are like snowflakes…each one is different!

Contact Info:

• Website: Charlestondyelab.com
• Instagram: CharlestonDyeLab
• Facebook: Charleston Dye Lab

Image Credits
All of these pictures were taken by Kevin Burke and Betty Prime and are our property.