Is it true that there are now only three colors of Inkodye light-sensitive dye?

—ADVERTISEMENT—

Instructions for
using Inkdoyes

Artistic Photographic Processes
by Suda House

---

More books about photos on fabric

---

Thank you for the information that I found on the internet about INKO. I have been using them for 30 years, purchasing from the source in Oakland, California, when Dharma did not carry INKO. Dharma Trading Co. has now said that Inko is no longer available in the original palette and has only 3 colors??? Do you know if this is true?

I have used Inko to excellent effect on some very large projects, using linen. I hand paint pattern with no wicking, etc. I have recently been commissioned and the client would prefer silk charmeuse. I have only found reference to "raw silk" in relation to INKO use.

I would love any thoughts you might have.

Thank you, Margaret

I'm sorry to tell you that this is true. I noticed that the company that now makes Inkodyes was limiting the sales on their site to only those three colors several months before Dharma was, presumably while Dharma still had some of their old stock. I thought about ordering some from Dharma while I could, but now it is too late. Maybe it's just as well that I didn't stock up, since the shelf life is supposed to be only about six months after the bottles of dye are opened, and no more than two years unopened.

It's particularly a shame that they chose orange as their third color, instead of yellow, which would at least allow one to mix them together to make a full range of colors. The original palette was so wide. I very much doubt whether the current blue, mixed with red, will make as lovely a color as the old violet. Royal blue and true red are not nearly as good for color mixing as cyan and magenta.

The nature of silk charmeuse is to wick the dye more readily than raw silk. Raw silk would be more similar to the line you have used. I strongly recommend you buy some extra silk charmeuse and experiment with how whatever dye you use creeps along on it. It's lovely material to dye.

If you have to switch from Inkodye to another sort of dye, such as fiber reactive dyes or acid dyes, you will probably want to use a thickener such as sodium alginate to prevent the dye from spreading as easily on the fabric. Let me know if you have questions about that. A good choice for silk painting is the Remazol liquid dye, which can also be used on linen; ProChem sells it as Liquid Reactive Dye, while Dharma sell it as Jacquard's Vinyl Sulphon dyes (the two companies have different color selections). Whether this dye needs to be steam-set depends on which auxiliary chemicals and what recipe you use.

There is a little bit of discussion going on now about Inkodyes on the Dye Forum on my site. Other links to information on Inkodye on this site:

• How to Dye and Paint Fabric with Light"
• What kind of dye goes on clear and develops under sunlight?
• Problems in washing out Inkodye light-activated dye
• Inkodye Tutorials [June 2011 Dye Forum post]

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)

Follow this blog on twitter here.
Tweet