Name: Lawrence

Message: I want to dye pearls. I would like to be able to attain a large variety of colors, I would like the end result to be light fast or be able to obtain lightfastness with a subsequent over dying? In addition to that perhaps some light interference effects. I have looked at the internet pages referring to Rit and Jaquard dyes but I want something for dying several hundred kilos of pearls as well as can be done.

Light interference effects cannot be obtained with dye; instead, use a light interference pigment, such as Jacquard's Pearl Ex powders, mixed with an appropriate acrylic binder.

I think the best approach for obtaining true dye to color your pearls would be to contact your dye supplier and ask them for advice. Since you will be working on a large scale, you can contact a large textile dye supplier, such as Standard Dye (http://www.standarddyes.com/) or Organic Dyestuffs Corporation (http://www.organicdye.com/); these type of company will have minimum order sizes ranging from one pound to five kilos of dye powder, per color.

Your dye supplier should be able to supply you with advice on what dyes are best to use for your purposes, and with instructions for how to use them.

Fire Mountain Gems provides a tutorial on how to dye freshwater pearls intended for small-scale use; they recommend either all-purpose dyes or fiber reactive dyes. Instead of fixing the dye in place as you would for textiles, they recommend using a coating of artists' fixative to seal in the color.

Even food coloring, which is an acid dye that can be used on protein-containing materials, has been recommended for use in dyeing freshwater pearls, although you can expect other forms of acid dye to be more reliable. See the Blossomluxe tutorial, "Dye your own Freshwater Pearls". Be careful if you follow the recommendation to use vinegar in your pearl-dyeing bath; the acids often used with acid dyes, such as vinegar, will react with calcium carbonate, causing the pearl to dissolve, if the concentration of the acid or the length of time the pearls are exposed to the dyebath are sufficient.

In dyeing the eggs of birds, the substance to which the dye sticks is not the calcium carbonate mineral that is the predominant material in an egg shell, but instead the protein that is combined in small amounts with the mineral. Since acid dyes are the type of dye that works best on proteins, acid dyes, including food colorings, fiber reactive dyes used with vinegar, and all-purpose dyes which themselves contain acid dyes, are what work for dyeing eggs. Similarly, in dyeing pearls, the most permanent sort of dye will be an acid dye that binds to the proteins, conchiolin and perlucin, which serve as a matrix for the calcium carbonate crystals found in pearls.


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