community of dyers

Hey Paula,
I too have experimented with double- dye baths for silk/rayon velvet. I did the opposite of you and dyed the LAnaset first. The biggest problem I had was with Lanaset violet which ran and bled after the fiber reactive bath (Sabracron gold...awesome combo!!!) That was with a .60 DOS...a scarf with only .10 DOS of violet almost completely discharged the Lanaset!
Is there something different about the Lanaset violet, or can I expect the same bleeding from any other color coming out of the reactive bath?
Thanks for all your expertise and experimentation!
Lynne

I've never used the Lanaset violet. Like about half of the Lanaset dyes, it is a fiber reactive dye, different from our other reactive dyes only in that it is intended to react with proteins when steamed or boiled at a mildly acidic pH. It should be reasonably washfast to 140°F. I don't know what a high pH will do to properly fixed Lanaset dyes.

Is it possible that there's something about your Lanaset dyeing procedure that's not ideal? Did you use citric acid, acetic acid, white vinegar, or sodium acetate to fix it? How long did you steam it for?

What were the conditions under which you applied your Sabracron gold, which removed your Lanaset violet? Presumably you used soda ash, since you're dyeing rayon.

We may need to consult ProChem, which has excellent technical support, either by mail at promail (at) prochemical.com, or by phone at (508) 676-3838.

I used citric acid in an immerson bath. It wasn't so much the soda ash that was the agent of doom for the violet so much as the post-dye processing (after the Sabracron immersion). After rinsing in cool water for several minutes, I put my velvet into a clear water bath and brought to a simmer...I do this because it clears the fiber reactive color from the piece more quickly than rinsing and rinsing by hand. Could be that the heat is the culprit....and, mea culpa...I may have rushed the violet lanaset initially.

I'll bet that's it. Use a thermometer to make sure that your rinse water does not exceed 140°F.

All dyes wash out more easily at higher temperatures, including both the unwanted unattached excess reactive dye, and the Lanaset dyes that you very much want to keep. Only the properly bonded Cibacron or Procion dye can be expected to survive boiling. Simmering is a quick and efficient way to remove unattached excess dye, but, unfortunately, it can also remove Lanaset dye. I'm afraid you'll have to resign yourself to rinsing, and rinsing, and rinsing....

I did some straight (yellow on the silk, blue on the rayon; yellow on the silk, red on the rayon) uses of Alter Ego on devore zipper bags. They turned out pretty cool. So I thought I'd try mixing a bit.

I put in straight red for the rayon pile, but put in both turquoise and red for the silk. I thought I'd get red pile on some type of purple or other... wasn't sure what, but you don't know unless you try.

My results were very odd indeed! I ended up with brilliant coral rayon on a smokey blue background. I did two scarves: one was devore satin, and the rayon was more of an accent, so I left it, however "unusual". The devore velvet was frankly hideous as it was 75% pile. I overdyed it with Jacquard's powdered Jet Black acid dye. This left me with a black silk background and a deep wine pile, which is really rather nice.

I just don't know that I have enough Alter Ego (I bought the starter set) to go on experimenting with it, though.

That's very interesting! (Can you post a picture?)

It seems that some of the yellow acid dye, found in either the turquoise or red mixture of acid dyes for the silk, or both, stained your rayon, and yet very little of the red acid dye worked at all on the silk. The unpredictability is surprising.

There's no chance you might have left out the fixative/reserving agent, is there?

I plan to photograph the latest set before the show on Saturday, so I'll try to put the weird one up here.

I'm sure I didn't leave out the fixative, because I treat the Alter Ego chemicals as if I'm cooking, setting them out and then putting them away as I add them. (It really does feel like cooking, come to think of it.)

One think I know I do differently than the instructions, however, is the amount of water. My designated dyeing pot is pretty big. I measure the dyes, etc, based on the weight of fabric, but I pretty much HAVE to add more water than they suggest.

I'd really like to see your results for the ones that came out the way you expected them to, as well, if that's not too difficult to arrange.

One possible way to reduce dyebath volume is to use canning jars, if a quart size is big enough. Fill the pot partway with water, not deep enough to float the filled jars, then place the canning jars in it, and heat. I do this sometimes for acid-dyeing multiple samples at once.

click here

As you can see, the silk picked up some of the blue and the rayon picked up some of the yellow. It's still quite attractive.

I would like to work with the black Alter Ego to see if I could get colored rayon on black silk, but I recoil at forking over $18 just to try it.

click here

Oddball scarf:
click here

I haven't quite figured out how to get the photo to show up here, I'm afraid.

You are way, way too smart. My hat is off to you (partially because I just smacked my head).

Thank you. I read both of these posts and find them both very helpful. I plan to experiment and will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again.