ENTWINEMENTS

I attended a demonstration by a silk painter at a guild meeting the other day and was suprised to hear her talk about " water based silk dyes" which she steams but uses a "fixative" which simply needs to be ironed to fix. Apparently these are French "dyes".When someone tells me that something needs to be ironed to fix it, I usually interpret that as being a resinous substance similar to extender.

This has got me curious as I have used both acid dyes and reactive dyes on
silk but have always used the appropriate vinegar or soda ash. I must admit
I have never steamed anything.From what I could get out of her the dyes come
from France and are used by the fashion houses there to dye silk. I must
admit I was impressed with the strength of colour as well as the hand of the
fabric.

Does you have any idea what these "dyes" could be?

French silk paints or dyes (the terms paints and dyes are misused interchangeably) are usually acid dyes dissolved with the acid added. Others are pigments in a thin water suspension and are really paints; these are heat set with an iron.

The biggest problem with preparing acid dyes in this manner is that some colors won't dissolve enough to give a strong color so additives are used to increase the solubility of the dyes. Traditionally this has been alcohol, but breathing alcohol vapors all day can effect the human body so some companies now use other additives such as urea or glycols.

I think that ironing is a substitute for steaming or heat setting. Most times you get even more intense colors by steaming. Did you know that you can use a dryer to heat set dry textiles?

I don't know what the fixative is, could be something to change the pH to make it set faster or a very dilute binder like those found in textile paints. The ones I've seen are thin like water.

You can make your own from the acid dyes you already have.

For further reading steam vs. chemical fixative,