RainbowFingers Giveaway and Dye Experiments

Before I say anything else, I want to congratulate Cat's Wire for winning the giveaway today. I will be sending out your goodies as soon as I get your address :)

So this week has been a busy one for expermentation but I think I finally have a handle on how to get nice dark colors on habotai. I learned a lot of things about dyeing this week and that is a good thing to me. I want to know everything I can learn about what I do. I dont like running into brick walls, standing there scratching my head and thinking, "Now what do I do?" Never a good feeling.


So after lots of research (because I always have to do LOTS OF research before I do something) I did some experiments with little bits of silk.


I did a lot with my MX dyes and vinegar because I knew that using soda ash and vinegar gives distinctly different results with some colors. Then after finishing with those, I did some Dupont dye experiments.


Now everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, I read said I HAD to steam these dyes for something like 3 hours. I wondered how on earth I could accomplish this. Then I decided to throw caution to the wind and try the microwave instead.


Now the microwave seems to work well with the procion. I do get dye run off when I rinse but very little, the colors are set well. I even ran them though a hot wash after with no change in the results. The dupont, which was what I was worried about has NO dye run off. It was completely stable after a very short stay in the microwave.


I have yet to try doing a 2 1/2 yard piece of silk in there so I guess that will be my next experiment, but the results so far are VERY pleasing! I only have the three colors in dupont but I will probably get a few more. Truthfully just using the vinegar with the Procion MX will satisfy more of my needs. Silk doesnt like a lot of the deep blues and greens with Procion MX and soda ash and will not dye the black no matter what. Well now I can get great black...and brown and the beautiful black brown mix there in the middle was what I was shooting for. Perfect!