community of dyers

The question is how much will a 2 oz bottle of dry dye powder make in terms of mixed volume. So for a 2 oz bottle that uses 2 tsp about how much die can I make? I need to order from dharma and I would like to know how dye to buy. Perhaps the site has already polled the most popular colors. Thanks

I am also curious as to how much die will a 2 oz bottle make.

One two-ounce jar of dye contains about 60 grams of dye powder, which is enough to tie-dye about twelve shirts, all by itself, albeit only one color. Three two-ounce jars of dye (one in each of three colors) add up to enough dye for tie-dyeing over fifty shirts.

Obviously you'll get more shirts dyed with that amount of dye powder if you like a lot of white in your shirts, and fewer if you want no white at all. And your dye will go much farther if you like well-diluted pastel colors than if you like super-intense colors.

-Paula

So 2 OZ MAKES about a gallon and a half. I found out yesterday that I really apply the dye pretty heavy. I will see what happened when I wash it out today. then I also need to buy twice as much in turquoise. I thought yesterday that my most used colors would have been yellow and fuscia but I used up the green and purple rather quickly. After I think about it the outer color would use up the most dye. Yesterday was my learning experience. Also the rubber bands that came were so strong that they folded up the shirt so today I need to get some string or twine. thanks

It depends on how dark the color is that you want. One gallon is 16 cups.

Looking at table one on my page of "How much Procion MX dye should I use?", a 60-gram jar of dye will make:

• 60 cups of a pale color (at one gram per cup)
• 12 cups of a medium color (at five grams per cup)
• 6 cups of a dark or intense color (at ten grams per cup), or
• 3 cups of black (at twenty grams per cup).

(Obviously that last line applies only if you have black dye powder.) But some dye powders are much more intense in color than others. A really dilute dye color mixture like baby blue is mostly diluant powder.

-Paula

I did not compute correctly. If twelve shirts from 2 oz and takes about 4 oz liquid per shirt, then about 48 oz of liquid dye from a 2 oz bottle. That is more like a quart and a half. I would not be concerned but the Blicks here and Artmart are seemingly always out of popular color. The jars are jacquard 2/3 oz at 4 bucks or so. In a pinch fine but since supply is unreliable I need to order enough.

Perhaps the site has already polled the most popular colors.

Check out my FAQ page, What colors should I buy to start out with?.

The most popular starting colors are the ones that make the brightest colors, both straight and as mixtures: yellow MX-8G (Dharma's Lemon Yellow), red MX-8B or red MX-5B (Dharma's fuchsia or light red), and turquoise MX-G (Dharma's turquoise). Everyone needs these.

Next, you need to get a black; a bit of black makes every other color seem brighter by contrast. I like black MX-CWNA, which Dharma calls new black.

Then, if you're willing to buy a few more jars of dye, consider these....

If you want to mix a bright true red, you must have red MX-5B plus orange MX-2R. These two colors, mixed together, won't give you the color separation and the yellow halos in tie-dyeing that fuchsia plus lemon yellow will.

I also wouldn't want to be without violet MX-2R, which Dharma calls grape, and a navy blue such as blue MX-2G (cobalt) or their mixture strong navy (which is red MX-5B plus navy MX-3R).

For a list distinguishing the pure unmixed colors from the colors that Dharma and other dye suppliers mix from them, see my page, Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?. Sometimes it's nice to buy a premixed color, but if you're only buying a few jars, make them unmixed pure colors since they're better for mixing. Except for black. It's better to buy a pre-mixed black.

-Paula

Because I can't ever write a few words when a whole paragraph will do, I wrote an entire page on this topic for my FAQ:

How much Procion MX dye should I use?

starting with "Use more for darker colors, less for paler colors". Scroll down for a chart comparing the recommendations of different manufacturers for how much to use in preparing tie-dyeing mixtures.

-Paula