Dyeing fiber

[Teresa Gunderson]

I've done a considerable amount of silk dyeing. I have my favorite dye, I'm familiar with how to mix, apply and fix the dye. HOWEVER... didn't you know there'd be a "however?"

Silk dyeing is expensive. I need to trim my art expenses. The dyes I used do not work on anything but silk & wool. Silk is not the easiest fabric to work with, nor is it easy to pair with other fibers in mixed media. I want to dye some of my fabric and use other fabric to go with it... not easily done with silk. I've decided to go with cotton (for those reasons and more). Problem is... HOW DO I DO IT?

I've gone to my beloved Dharma Trading and wandered around. There are several types of dyes (some very expensive) that work on cotton... and lots of colors. I'd like to start with a kit, but the only kits I can find are traditional tie-dye colors of yellow, fuchsia and turquoise... not colors I can imagine would be easy to mix to get different shades. I want a wide variety of color possibilities.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Resources?

[Neki Rivera]

hi
you can use procion MX with soda ash for cellulose yarns(cotton, linen, hemp) and with acetic acid or citric acid for silk. It works on wool too, but the colors come out less intense than silk.
i'd recommend Linda Knutson's book on dyeing, you'd be surprised of all the colors you can get with fuchsia, turquoise and yellow as they are a set of primaries .
hope this helps

neki desu

[Kath Danswan]

I dye a lot of silk fibres, fabric and also fleece using acid dyes which are easy to use and give a lovely strong colours. They are easily come by in the UK and I am sure you could get them in the States. They are generally reasonably priced and much easier to use than procion dyes. I can buy them as all-in-one dyes with the mordant added or add it myself. If I am trying out a new form of dyeing I always buy the three primary colours and mix them. Ayway worth a try. Kath

[Teena]

Hi Teresa,

I've been painting on silk for 30 years, and cotton for 10 years.

I've tried all kinds of French dyes, silk paints, cotton dyes etc, and I would like to make the following observations:

- Procion MX has a short shelf-life - use it the day you mix it
- Drimarene K (similar to Procion and available in Australia) has a long shelf-life (months), you can mix up the solution and store it, and simply add the powdered dye when you need it.

The colours are rich and intense and very cost-effective. Buy small amounts to test them, and if you like them, buy in larger quantities to save even more money. I have some photos of cotton clothing I've created with Drimarene K if you'd like to see them - I hope it's ok to post the url - http://abfabdesigns.com/handpainted-cotton-clothing-close-ups.html

If you're looking for the best info on dyeing fabric of all kinds, pop over to Paula Burch's site - Paula's written many books and her website is the best on the net for clear instructions and you can even post questions:

http://www.pburch.net/

Other worldwide links which may be of assistance:
http://australiansilkworm.com/artlinks.html
Hope this helps!
Teena Hughes