community of dyers

This forum is for all sorts of hand-dyers to post links to pictures of their work and discuss dyeing with other dyers. Please jump right in and post. We'd like to see your work!

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Has anyone been seeing problems with the guar gum used for thickening acid dyes? One person has written to me about it (see my blog entry for today, "Problems with Meypro guar gum for thickening acid dyes"). It seems very odd that problems should appear almost at the same time for three entirely different dye thickeners: sodium alginate, Superclear (poly acrylic acid-based thickener), and guar gum.

-Paula

Colour on Cloth: Create Stunning Effects with Dye on Fabric
Ruth Issett, Batsford, ISBN 978-1906388348. (First Published in the United Kingdom in 2004; US publication date May 5, 2009.)

Some dyers rave over Ruth Issett's beautiful dyed fabrics and papers, and her reliable recipes, but others complain that Colour on Cloth is not all that useful. It depends on what you want. If you need to develop your sense of color and knowledge of color mixing, the sketchbook exercises (testing Procion MX colors) are a perfect place to start. The fabric exercises mostly involve direct dye application on very small pieces of fabric, so the dye recipes make quite small quantities, only two or three tablespoons per dye color. Recipes include dye painting; "layered dyeing" (same as Ann Johnston's earlier "parfait dyeing"); "crumpled dyeing" (a slight variation, same as Morgan & Benn's tray dyeing; dyeing small swatches in plastic bags;

Hope you get a kick out of this!

http://youtu.be/IBEiAGEw49g

I have been interested in using different acids . I notice I can find some acids use documented and not others.
I am planning to run some tests with Phosphoric acid . to see how this affects dye uptake and leveling .
I would be interested if any one has any input on this .
Since it is a food safe product with no odor I thought it could be interesting .
Sue

Hello, I am not exactly new to dyeing yarn, but lately have been having a frustrating problem with dyes not rinsing out of my yarns. Now I don't know if it's "new mommy brain" or what, but I don't think I've changed anything about my process: I wet the yarns in synthrapol & water while I mix up the "chemical water" for the dyes (metaphos, warm water, urea, & vinegar/soda ash, depending on the fiber). I mix up the dye in a cup with the "chemical water" and add salt. I wring out the yarn, paint on the dyes & wrap up in plastic & let sit for at least 24 hours. Then I rinse out in cool water, then add Joy dish detergent & rinse until clear.

For a long time I've wondered what's in vinyl dye. It's available in auto parts stores and is advertised for use in recoloring vinyl dashboards and other plastic parts. "Unlike paint," they say, it soaks into the surface of a hard plastic, so small scratches on it won't show much. I wondered if it might contain solvent dye (dye which is soluble not in water but in nonpolar solvents like gasoline).

Finally found some MSDS pages, and it's not a dye at all, in spite of the name. It's a paint, instead. VHT Vinyl Dye™ contains a bunch of rather nasty solvents, including toluene, acetone, and methyl ethyl ketone, along with pigments such as carbon black and titanium dioxide. Pigments are small particles which do not dissolve in any solvent.

I've divided my old page Dyeing Acrylic with Basic Dye into two different pages, About Basic Dyes and How to Dye Acrylic Yarn and Fabric. It's more logical this way and makes more of a point that it's safer to use disperse dyes to color acrylic yarn and fabric. Of course I updated both pages quite a bit, too, while I was at it.

-Paula

Hello, I’m new to dyeing and have been trying my hand at using Procion MX dyes (from George Weil) on cotton muslin with mixed results (sorry for the long post but I thought I should say exactly what I did to get the results I did)...

The first lot I did was using 1.5 tsp of dye mixed with 25ml tepid water, topped up to 50ml with cold water, then dissolving 1tsp of soda ash in hot water and adding it to the mix. I then added this to 60g of wrung out muslin in a freezer bag, agitated it for 5-10 minutes, then left it for 2.5 hours to fix. The results were really vivid but slightly patchy.

I have been having a strange problem with green acid dyes for the past 6 years - I pretty much get anything except for green as a result, but only when working with wool.

• this has happened while living on completely opposite sides of the country (different water source)
• happens for every brand that I have tried (pro-chem, jacquard, dharma)
• ONLY happens with green, I have no problems at all with any other colors. Also occurs throughout the range of greens from mallard/teal to lime/avocado
• I can get a real green only by mixing my own dye from yellows/blues/turquoise/etc
• the exact same green dyes work just fine on silks - ie, I get the green I expect

I'd like to dye and handpaint onto pure wool fabrics, such as melton, heavy flannel and blanket wool. Obviously these types of fabric are woven (as opposed to knitted) but I am conscious of not wanting to damage or shrink the fibre and it ending up like a cardboard mess, particularly at the cost per metre! Painting onto fabric is not such an issue as I have access to a steamer.
My belief was that the combination of heat, agitation and soap would felt wool in any form, and that certain chemicals could worsen the effect. However as my main aim is achieve very strong and/or vivid shades I am intending to use milling (kenanthrol) acid dyes at high temperatures, and as I want flat, even colour I have to assume I will need to stir and turn the fabric in the dyebath.

Tray Dyeing: Exploring Colour, Texture and Special Effects
Leslie Morgan & Claire Benn, Committed to Cloth, ISBN 0955164915

This slim 44-page book, bound with two staples, is a good introduction to a popular form of dyeing.

There's nothing new about the idea the authors are calling "tray dyeing". The idea of spreading out partially crumpled fabric and pouring fiber reactive dye on it must have occurred to nearly anyone who's done either low water immersion dyeing (LWI) or any direct dye application on untied fabric, and the idea of pre-soaking fabric in soda ash before applying the dye is commonplace, the usual approach for tie-dyeing, frequently used for direct dye application. However, this is a good method, and it could be helpful for a beginner to have a book about it.

The biggest weakness in the book Tray Dyeing is its heavy reliance on a single

I am Hand-painting silk (gutta serti technique) with procion vinyl sulphon dyes. I use the serti technique on silk and I am making the switch from Procion H to Jacquard Vinyl Sulphon dyes as I slowly run out of my stockpile of H dye.

The first color I bought was 32 oz of the #606 blue in JVS, and have had terrible problems . It is so dull first and foremost compared to the beautiful Royal Blue of the H series- anyone else having this problem? Dull going on, not just after I steam it and I do use chemical water.

Second, after 1-2 days the dye mixed with the chemical water starts to thicken and dry up very rapidly, forming lumps that I cannot re-incorporate and if I paint with it, the "lumps" dry out on the surface of the silk and then end up dislodging during rolling for steaming the silk and sprinkling over other areas leaving blue stains. Then the dye dries up completely in the jars. When I use H dye it lasts indefinitely after mixing with the chemical water.

I was noticing that some of the dyesellers I know about in Australia have shut down for the entire month. This seems very odd to me since, in the northern hemisphere, people are so much more interested in dyeing in the summer that this site gets twice as much traffic during the summer months. It seems as though now should be prime time for everything dye-related in Australia.

Have you ever used a high-powered burner outside, either for cooking or dyeing?

I have dyed polyester in my kitchen, using a large stainless-steel dyeing pot, but I regretted it when it came time to add the dye carrier chemical, also known as color intensifier, which is required for dyeing polyester. The stuff smells HORRIBLE and ought to be used only with respiratory protection. I opened all of the windows all the way, and opened the front and back doors, too, but it wasn't enough.

Hi - have dyed the above with Jaquard acid dye and its now too dark and want to remove about half of it or all if its easier. Am considering Jaquard Colour Remover or Jaquard Idye remover the latter being for all fabrics - I think the Jaquard Colour Remover is for wool but not sure if does nylon. Have tested a sample with dylon pre dye and its reduced the blue dye fully but goes back to a peachy colour (fabric was a sort of muted mauve to start). Would greatly appreciate pointers including what to do with the orange/peach if possible - much thanks Tlitha

I just listed "Vibrant Color" by Jane Dunnewold and Lisa Kerpoe on my artfire shop: http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/4251820.
I have viewed it once, and decided not to go in that direction, so I thought someone here might be interested.

I haven't seen anything posted about this, so I thought I would share. I have been using Dharma Trading's Superclear for years to thicken dyes both for tie-dye and dye painting. I went to their website to order some today, and they are totally out with no ETA of new supplies, due to an ingredient no longer being available! And, much as I don't like using sodium alginate, I checked their product page and discovered this:
"we have just gotten over a world wide shortage of Alginate Kelp. But the brand we used to carry is no longer available anywhere. The product we now have to carry is different from the old kind, particularly the HV, slightly finer, lighter in color, and you may have to use a little more, depending on your use. We will be doing some experiments, and will post on this page if we find any radical difference. But this is it, the only one that anyone can get any more."

I usually buy all my Procion MX type dyes online from the same supplier, but just bought Kemtex "reactive dye" cerise red from a shop nearby as had ran out of my fuschia red and want to get this dyeing finished. The shop assistant told me it was Procion when I asked, but having researching upon getting home, I think she may have sold me this cold water dye: www.kemtex.co.uk/kemtexreact.html

I'm wondering if it'll be effective mixed with my usual Procion MX to dye cotton? Is it Procion based still? Does it require a different process?

Hello there...we are new to this forum and this is our first post so hello everyone!
We have been doing batik since learning from the great Rikki Power in Tioman island, Malaysia about 6 years ago. We use Remasol dyes and free hand paint our pieces on cotton which range from sarongs to dresses to cushion covers and wall hangs etc etc..
Anyway, we have always used sodium silicate to fix our pieces (as we were taught in Malaysia)...however, we always seem to have issues with it.. it isnt easy to source (we are based in Australia).... some potteries have it and there is a batik suppliers in Sydney, but is quite expensive to have it sent and the main problem is that it doesnt always work...even if ensuring the piece is 100%dry before putting in the solution and constantly "babysitting"it ...we have mixed results when taking it out...which is frustrating when you have spent hours on a piece only to find it ruined ....I know that the dyes can also be fixed by heat...so I guess the question is...do any of you know of a heat fixing machiene or a relatively simple way of heat fixing that could serve us (our pieces are sarong size and bigger) or of a sodium silicate solution that will work well everytime (we have tried many..I think the best one was from PQ silicates "N" solution, but its just the cost factor..about $15-$20 per litre..we need about 30 lts plus postage of at least around $100 or more)... I hope some of you have some suggestions..I attach some pics of our work and you can also see more at www.kontigobatik.wordpress.com.