Name: Audrey

Message: Will silk and wool come out different colors if the same color of commercial dye is used?

If the wool and silk are the exact same color to begin with, and if the dye is a single-hue unmixed dye, than the hue produced will be the same, or extremely close, though the intensity of the color may be different.

However, if the dye is a mixture of two or more different colors of dyes, as is the case for most commercial dyes, then it is likely that one of the dyes in the mixture will work a little better on one fiber, and another a little better on the other fiber. The result will be a different hue. For example, the same blue-yellow dye mixture might produces results that are more bluish on wool, and more greenish on silk, or vice versa.

Of course, if one of the fibers you are dyeing is a little more yellowish that the other to begin with, that, too, will affect the ultimate hue.

I can tell you which colors of some brands of commercial dyes are single-hue unmixed dyes. For other brands, I cannot. Here are some lists of single-hue unmixed dyes in various lines of dye:

Some brands consist entirely of mixtures of two or more dyes. For example, the Cushing dye company says that all of their dyes are mixtures, and it looks like most if not all of the dyes made by Dylon are mixtures. The makers of Rit dye give no clues whatsoever as to which dyes are contained in any of their colors.

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