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A student at our school has recently had her silk disintegrate after having printed with Procion MX dyes (alginate base - made with chemical water - urea, calgon, ludigol, 2tsp dye per cup and 1 tsp baking soda) then steaming.

It started to fall apart in the washing out process.

I've never seen this happen before and wondered if anyone has any thoughts. Obviously, baking soda (alkali) isn't great for silk (acid) but I've never seen it actually reduce the materials strength so much that it would rip with a gentle pull. And we use soda ash (much stronger alkali) in immersion dyeing on silk all the time.

Hello!
I'm currently working on getting all the supplies for my very first dye project, however where I'm currently living I am renting and I do know some dyes can discolor the washing machine. What are some other options for immersion dying? (I'm working with a pair of white Denim shorts that are 100% cotton. I do not know the exact weight.) I'm specifically looking at using yellow MX-8G, and turquoise MX-G)
(I'm looking at dying up three pairs for this project, one pair yellow, one pair turquoise, and another of a color mixing recipe for Lime Green, using both dyes.) I have also read from other Dyers that some of you find it difficult to paste up your dyes with Urea (I think this was specifically directed towards red- MX 8B.) Does this apply to either of the dyes I've listed?

I've just created a new page about the use of Sodium silicate as a fixative for dyeing, for the auxiliary chemicals section of the FAQ on this website.

As always, any criticism will be gratefully received.

Sodium silicate is really interesting stuff. It's apparently made by reacting soda ash with molten sand. If you drip it onto glass and don't clean it up, it will become a permanent part of the glass. If you let it dry on your work surface or in your fabric, it turns into glass, impossible to remove. If you add acid, it turns into silica gel (which is a solid, in spite of its name). But, as a dye fixative, it makes a good substitute for soda ash, particularly suitable for fixing a dye painting after the dye has dried.

I have a cream colored, cotton eyelet dress (made in India) which I would like to make white. Right now I am planning to use Rit Color Remover to try to make the fabric white, and then reinforce it with Rit Whitener & Brightener. Does anyone have a better or alternative route for making this cream colored dress white? Thanks!

Hi! I've been dyeing nylon rope various colors using Jacquard Acid Dye. The one color I've had trouble with is turquoise; using the Jacquard Turquoise, I end up with a shade that looks pretty much the same as Sky Blue or Sapphire Blue, with a slight purple tint rather than a slight green tint, as you should be able to see on the right of the attached file.

What I'm looking for is a turquoise in the cyan color range, as shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shades_of_cyan

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Is anyone doing snow-dying?
I've been going crazy with it, and snow makes a fantastic, though uncontrollable resist. Lots of fun!
I do have to wonder about why this works at all, given the extremely low temperature. Any ideas?

cheers,
Gisela

My "big job" of dyeing for the local dance troupe is becoming a nightmare.

The artistic director dragged her feet about getting me the check and the specs for the work, so I'm only going to have about three weeks to turn around 60 yards of silk. (I already have a full time job, so that's really short.) I explained there would be a rush charge. No problem, they thought, so I confirmed the order and sent off for the supplies.

Last night I got an email from the artistic director. She has changed her mind about the colors, hopes that won't be a problem, and suggests I just use RIT dye.

I've been intensively tie dying for a couple years now (I actually tie dyed more shirts last year than there are days in the year), and I like where I'm at, and what I'm doing. Of course, I'm always looking to stretch and expand upon my technique.

Can anyone point me at some pictures of tie dyes that used thickeners to achieve whatever desirable effect they do? I'm not really looking for a "how to" or advice (I like to figure some of that on my own), just some examples of what it does, and maybe something that would compare the end result of with and without.

Thanks.

My question if about the proper rinsing steps when doing direct application and then immersion dyeing.

I am making some batik cotton shirts using the Dharma batik wax. I have been presoaking in soda ash and letting them dry then drawing on my pattern in wax. Then I hand paint part of the design (say the inside of a heart) red, let it dry completely then overwax the heart and immersion dye the shirt (maybe orange). I'm using procion dye concentrates made up with urea water and don't add soda ash since its in the shirt already. I then overwax the colored design and immerse in a lighter color I often get bleeding around the edges of (the heart) if I dye a lighter color.

Does anyone know if there are any new Tie dye Dvds out there? I pretty much have what I think is out there. Tom and Martine 3 set. Brad garrets, etc. Thanks.

Is this possible?

I've been hired by a local dance group to dye some silk for them... in total about 60 yards of silk habotai! The silk will be divided into three batches for three different color schemes.

If I were doing my usual low water immersion method, I would not be at all worried by the size of this job, but because they want particular patterns, I plan to use direct application of fiber reactive dye, pre-activated with soda ash. Basically, tie dye without actual tied resists. (I find batching silk about 4 hours in a warm room usually sets the color nicely.)

But here's the thing: I usually only do 1 piece of fabric at a time in this method. I use a plastic tub (about 16 x 24 inches) for one three-yard piece, with the silk mostly squished together at one long side, and the whole thing tilted up so that the excess dye can drip away. For this big job -- well,

just thought i'd introduce myself:
my name is justine, i live in oakland, CA, but i'm originally from new zealand (i've been in the US for just over 18 months).

i work for a local clothing company: we make cotton, rayon, cotton-polyester, and linen garments for our three local stores. i originally worked in the stores, but took over from the previous dyer/stock manager. i have no previous experience with dyeing AT ALL, so this has been quite a strange thing. i was basically walked through the process twice, left a written set of instructions, and that's it! i started the job mid-season, so i was just going off recipes that the previous person had created, but with the advent of summer i've had to be solely responsible for coming up with about 10 new colours for the spring/summer season. someone else brings me fabric colour samples, and then i've had to recreate them... it's been interesting, but i've discovered i seem to have a fairly natural knack for it.

I have 3 SDA videos (VHS tapes) for sale from the New Tools series:

1. Mechanical and Chemical Resists
2. Cloque
3. Vat Dye Discharge

All videos are by Jason Pollen and Joy Boutrop and are accompanied by a booklet.

Price for all three is $60 + $5 to ship (the current SDA price for all three is $120).

I don't take PayPal but will accept your check (or cash). Please email me or call if interested. Thank you!

Ann Katzen
katzenhanddyed@msn.com
505 466 9472

I have been using Procion MX dyes for 5 or 6 years for children's tie dye workshops. I am happy with the intensity of the colors when the projects are completed and have watched the kids wear their shirts and eventually grow out of them. My question is regarding the factors contributing to fading of the these dyes over the course of, perhaps, one year.Maybe these kids really are wearing their shirts every week, but it appears to me that the garments are fading more than they should. Any input?
Wendy Rosen
Kailua, Hi.

I've been dyeing wool and handspinning yarn full-time for five years. I take the usual precautions... gloves, dustmask, handling the powder as little as possible. I dye, on average, about five pounds of wool per week.

Recently, a visitor came up to my studio and completely flipped out about my "indoor dyeing environment" and my use of acid dyes. She told me that dyers frequently develop pancreatic cancer and that if i ever have children, they might be autistic because of heavy metals!

Ok, i realize that this woman was being hysterical... but she planted a seed of worry. Is there any correlation between frequent use of Jacquard acid dyes and serious health issues? And do these dyes contain heavy metals? I was under the impression that they do not, but now i'm not sure.

This week a did I LOT of Deconstructed Screen Printing and I blooged about it. http://approachable-art.blogspot.com/2010/02/deconstructed-screen-printing.html

- Judi

Hi

I haven't been here for a while, since I hadn't done any tie dying due to frustration with Procion MX going bad (I threw out a ton of procion MX dyes due to the high humidity in Taiwan and heat, things were going bad rather quickly!). I do like procion MX though. The shirts I had dyed lasted for years and it will NOT fade no matter what, in fact the cloth is all torn from repeated washing/wearing and the shirt shows no sign of fade. I want to make more shirts since I need to replenish my wardrobe but I would rather not pay the high cost of shipping to order dyestuff online when something can be found in Taiwan.

OK, for a variety of reasons I'm looking to establish an online presence that is NOT Etsy. It just doesn't seem to be a good "fit" for me (not enough Martha-Stewart-type stuff or design-mag-quality photos in my shop for any exposure there, for one), and I'll leave it at that. :-\

Options I'm considering, given that I'm still a "hobbyist" and not a full-fledged biz, without any capital to speak of, really:
Artfire
Shophandmade
Bonanzle
ecrater
own web site (cursory investigation has so far come up with too high a monthly fee for the widgets I'd need to sell stuff, but I might not be looking in the right places)