What is a good substitute for the Marabu 'Dark Turquoise' silk colour?

I was wondering if you could help me out. I normally dye silks and have used various brands. But recently I've been trying to get my hands on some dark turquoise. The make I bought before is no longer available.

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I've had no luck trying to mix one for myself as it always end up looking like teal. What would you suggest to get a good colour? I have many Dupont acid dyes but none of them are anywhere near what I am looking for.

What dye did you use before that is no longer available? In some cases I can identify a specify dye chemical, which would help in suggesting an alternative.

The dye in question was dark turquoise, an acid silk dye made by Marabu.

Unfortunately it is impossible to identify any of the pigments used in Marabu silk paints, so I can't use that to help find the same dye under another brand name. In fact, it looks like the Marabu Silk Colours are not true dyes at all, but instead paints, in which insoluble pigments are combined with a binder to make the pigments adhere to the fiber. Dye-based silk colors are set by moist heat, such as by steaming, while pigment-based silk colors are set with dry heat, such as by ironing; as a result, dyes and paints cannot be used at the same time. The first of these two different types of color (dye or paint) you use must be fixed in place and any excess rinsed out before you use the other type of color (paint or dye) on the same piece.

However, at least the name can be used to find a color chip to compare to. These are from an online color chart for the Marabu silk paints:

Key question: Is the unwanted color you've been mixing too dark, or too bright, too dull, too green, or too blue?

I can't tell which of these the problem is, from your description so far. The color of the "dark turquoise" chip on the Marabu Silk Paints online color chart looks very much like teal to me; in fact, it is identified as "teal" if you plug it into a color naming tool such as Chirag Mehta's "Name That Color" at http://chir.ag/projects/name-that-color/#008181 . (This is a fun online color tool to play with.)

If the color you're mixing is too dark, you might get the color you want simply by using less dye, or by adding more dye dilutant, while otherwise mixing it just the same as you have been doing. If your color is too blue, try adding a drop of yellow dye; if it is too green, try adding a drop of blue dye. If the color is too dull, then you need to find a clearer blue and green to use in your color mixing, with a blue that is more turquoise and less royal blue to begin with, or a yellow that is less orangish.

When using Dupont Silk Dyes, which are mixtures of various types of unidentified dyes, to make the dye more blue, the mixing blue primary colors are supposed to be 265 ('Bleu Roy') and 205 ('Limoges'), though as a rule medium blue colors are not as good for mixing bright greens as more turquoise hues will be. To make it more green, use a little yellow; the mixing primary yellow colors are supposed to be 717 ('Jaune Primaire') or 715 ('Jaune de Chrome'). 'Jaune de Chrome' is more golden (orangish) than 'Jaune Primaire', so it will make a somewhat more olive hue when used to mix greens.

Not everyone likes to use Dupont dyes for mixing their own colors; many people use only the colors that are already available, since there is such a huge range of different colors that are sold. If you want to try another line of steam-set silk dyes that is similar to the Dupont line, you might consider that the Sennelier Tinfix line of dyes includes a color, 'Celadon', whose color chip looks, as far as I can tell, rather close to the color you are trying to find, just a little brighter and a tiny bit greener. The following is the color that is shown online by Dharma Trading Company for the Sennlier TinFix 'Celadon':

Compare the Tinfix Celadon color on the "Name That Color" page mentioned above with the link http://chir.ag/projects/name-that-color/#01887A .

Pebeo Setasilk, another line of iron-fixed silk paints, has a 'Turquoise' which is a lighter and brighter color than Marabu's 'Dark Turquoise' (color taken from the online color chip at George Weil):

Are you only going to be painting silk designs, or are you looking for a silk dye that can also be used for coloring a larger piece? If the latter, have you tried PRO Chemical & Dye's Washfast Acid Dyes? The color chip shown for PRO Wash Fast Acid 'Turquoise' 478 looks very close to the Marabu Silk Paints 'Dark Turquoise' color chip. This dye is also known by the generic name Colour Index Acid Blue 7:

Of course any specific dye color I mention may really turn out to be less satisfactory than the mixes you have already been making. We must be careful about concluding much from a color chip; since different computer monitors are calibrated differently, a color chip that looks like the right color on one monitor will look like a different color altogether on another monitor, so we are never sure whether what we are seeing online is what a manufacturer expects us to see. This is why printed color charts are more reliable than those you can see online; a company will send out printed color sheets only after checking that they have been printed correctly. They can't check for whether our monitors show us the same color as theirs are showing them. Even if the color chip we are looking at is correct, the brightness of the fabric that we dye, or the exact methods and concentrations we use, can alter the ultimate color considerably. That said, color chips are still handy to look at while thinking about dye colors.

To play with mixing colors before you get out your real dyes or paints, I strongly recommend trying Olli Niemitalo's Dye Mixer Applet, at http://yehar.com/blog/?p=307 ; even if you don't find the dyes or paints you are using in its listing, you can still use it to clarify in your mind what happens when you add another color, by mixing similar colors from the list choices it includes.

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Posted: Friday - February 14, 2014 at 11:39 AM

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What is a good substitute for the Marabu 'Dark Turquoise' silk colour?

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