Thursday, May 13, 2010

To Dye For

Recently with my work on my Hand and Lock submission I had trouble finding those colors so I had opted to buy dyes from Dharma Trading company .

They worked BEAUTIFULLY!  With some pointers from my friend Miss Megan Mac I was able to come out quite successful with my dye baths.  This not a clean process at all.  First you have all these  loose powders not just they dye powder but the soda ash and other preparation chemicals and loads of salt.  Also the first rule is not to wear white and not to wear anything that you particularly like because most likely it will get a splash or so of whatever color dye you are working with.  Also GLOVES you must remember to wear gloves unless you don't mind the unnatural colored hands, whilst most people will avoid making contact with your hands till it fades.  Also must remember to use pots, buckets that are clean but that you don't mind ruining.  Once a dye bucket always a dye bucket in my opinion.  I bought a cheap 20 quart stock pot off of Target to do both cold and boiling dye baths. 

I had to get the appropriate dyes to go with the fabrics I was working with.  Even though it said that Fiber Reactive dyes would work for my silk organza the Acid Dyes were said to work better.  I saved the Fiber Reactive dyes for my cotton yarns and cotton jersey.  I got a bit of Indigo pre-reduced which is the only one I have yet to try out.

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