ENTWINEMENTS

Acid Dyes

2010-06-04T22:34:55Z

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ACID DYES

Choosing the Right Dye

Unfortunately one one kind of dye will not do everything. So you will have to chose which dye is right for you and the task at hand. I will discuss the advantages and limititations of acid dyes to help you make an informed choice.

Types of Fibers

To select a dye, you must know the chemical composition of the fiber you want to dye. Cotton, linen, ramie, and all vegetable fibers are composed of cellulose; they’re referred to as cellulostic fibers. The chemical group that reacts with the dye molecule in cellulose is the hydroxyl group, -OH. Wool, mohair, cashmere, silk, and other animal fibers are made of protein. In all protein fibers, the reactive group is the positively charged amino group, -NH^3+. These are a part of the peptide bond that strings the amino acids together. The protein fibers can have additional reactive groups that are unique to each fiber, depending on the specific amino acids in the protein. Wool has a lot of the sulfur-containing amino acid, cystine, and consequently forms disulfide bonds. Silk is formed from amino acids that have a few hydroxyl groups that can also bind dye, these are the same reactive groups as found on cellulostic fibers and so silk will also color with dyes designed for cellulose.

Some synthetic fibers are made from regenerated cellulose: rayon, viscose and Tencel. They take up the dyes that react with cellulose. Nylon is a synthetic polyamide fiber having the same reactive groups as proteins, although not as many sites. Nylon dyes with the same dye as silk or wool, but some nylons, and there are several kinds, some that may dye a light color only, because of the reduced number of dye sites. Other synthetic fibers, like polyester, are more difficult to dye without industrial equipment.

ACID DYES

This ia a very large group of dyes, old ones and new ones. Dyes are called acid for two reasons:

1. they are the sodium salts of colorful complex organic acids,

2. and the dye bath is acidic, pH 2-7.

A salt is an ionic compound that separates into two oppositely charged particles, or ions, when dissolved in water. Since acids dyes are salts, when you dissolve them in water, you get a positively charged sodium ion and a negatively charged acid dye ion.

NaDye_{(crystalline)} « Na⁺_(aqueous) + Dye^-_(aqueous)

This negatively charged dye is attracted to the positively charged binding sites on the protein fiber, -NH³⁺. Because opposite charges attract, this forms a very strong ionic bond.

If the negatively charged dye ion can get to the positively charged dye binding site we have colored cloth. The pH must be controlled to assure that the dye and protien are properly charged.

Classes of Acid Dyes

There are many different classes of acid dyes, leveling, milling, chrome, premetallized that have to do with the structure of the acid molecule. I want to use a very practical classification, by the type of dye bath required for their application. Acid dyes can be applied in dye-baths with stong acids, weak acids or neutral ones. The structure of the dye dye detemines which dye bath is appropriate.

Acid dyes requiring a strong acid dye-bath

These are quick to apply, level easily, have a broad pallate with bright colors. Their high solubility in water limits their wet-fastness. We do not use these dyes in the home environment because concentrated sulfuric acid is very corrosive, flesh included, and we don’t have the techniques, safety equipment required nor the utensils for dealing with such a strong corrosive acid.

Acid dyes requiring a weak acid dye-bath

These dye only require a weak acid such as acetic acid, commonly found in vineger, for the dye bath. Vinegar or concentrated acetic acid can be used safely by small scale dyers. Weak acids can be combined with their salts to form a buffer ; a buffer helps to maintain the pH constant as you add the silk and dye. A buffered dye bath requires little monitoring of the pH during dyeing.

The iso-electric point of wool is pH 4.5, this is the pH at which wool, and by extension most protiens, are at their stongest. If you can apply the dye at a pH near 4.5 these are the gentlest conditions for the protien fiber and you will notice the wonderful hand that the dyed goods has at the end of the dye process. For the substrate, these are ideal conditions.

Good fastness properties can be obtained with dyes in this class. A small amount of sodium sulfate (2-5% WOF) can be used to increase levelness. A wide range of colors is available with some weakness in the very brightest colors.

Many acid dyes we use fall into this category; Lanaset, Kiton…

Acid dyes requiring a neutral dye-bath

These dyes are applied in a nearly neutral dye–bath, with an acid salt such as ammonium sulfate or ammonium acetate both of which are white crystalline solids. At the boil, these salts decomose slightly, giving off ammonia as a gas and leaving behind minute amounts of sulfuric acid.

(NH₄)₂SO₄ = 2NH₃(escapes as a gas) + H₂SO₄

As the bath boils sufficient acid accumulates to promote proper exhaustion. This is pretty easy, you add some salt to the dye-pot intially and just let it decompose slowly.

These dyes do have limited solubility, do not level well and require a long carefully controlled dye run. The low solubility limits their use in direct applications where one works from concentrated dye solutions. In the presence of even a weak acid these dye may strike fast and /or precipate out of solution. These tend to have duller colors.

CLASSIFICATION OF ACID DYES

	Strong acid dye-bath	Weak acid dye-bath	Neutral dye-bath
pH acid required	3.5 2-4%sulfuric acid	3.5-5.5 2-4% acetic acid	5.5-7 ammonium sulfate
solubility	high	intermediate	low
level dyeing	Very good	intermediate	fair
dyeing time	Relatively short	intermediate	longer time
wet-fastness	fair	better	very good
color range	wide range bright colors	intermediate	moderate brightness
examples		Lanaset Kiton	Pro WashFast Nylomine Miyako Ricoamide

Characteristics of All Acid Dyes

Acid dyes exhaust well, 96-100%, meaning that there is little dye in the dye bath at disposal time and that nearly all of the dye is on the fiber. This property also makes them easy on the environment; there is less chemical residue for disposal. Disposing of weak acid or neutral dye bath is no more problem than getting rid of pickle juice. Acid dyes require very small amounts of salt and other auxilliaries, as opposed to the massive amount of salt required for fiber-reactive dyes. These dyes are relatively insensitive to the amount of water in the dye bath; a handkerchief dyed in a liter of water and one dyed in 4 liters would be very close in color. Solution of acid dyes are stable for long periods of time. This means that you can prepare stock solutions of the dyes and still use them 6 months later. The pH needs to be carefully controlled, in the range designated, and heat is required for all processing, including direct application. This means all painting, stamping printing with acid dyes must be steamed or heat set.

Dye Sets

Dyes come in sets, or families of related compounds that form the fiber-dye bond under the same or similar conditions. Each manufactured color is a pure compound, meaning that it contains only one kind of dye molecule. These manufactured colors can be mixed to created many more colors; dye repackagers for the craft market sell mixed colors. Some sets have many manufactured colors. Lanaset, a dye set I use extensively for immersion dyeing, has 13. Others have fewer; a sulfur dye set may have only one--a black. Often it is unclear which dyes are manufactured colors. A simple method for testing for mixed colors is is to blow a bit of the dye across a damp cloth ; pure colors will have all the dots and spots the same color, mixed colors will show the component colors.

There are two advantages of using only manufactured colors: When you mix the colors, you can reproduce the colors. It is also cheaper to buy only a few dye colors. This will not limit your palette, because you are mixing from the same set as the repackager.

Dye Processes

We can divide dye processes into two categories: immersion dyeing and direct application.

In immersion dyeing, the dye is dissolved in a dye bath. The fabric is immersed in the dye bath and processed. A typical immersion process uses a lot of water, has a means of agitating the goods or circulating the bath, requires heating or temperature control, and is processed for an hour or more. The heat and time provide energy for the dye-fiber bonds to form. The term exhaust dyes is used to describe dyes that can bond all the dye molecules onto the fiber. The term exhaust is also used to describe the percentage of dye in the dye bath that is fixed to the substrate at the end of the dyeing process. Well-exhausted dye baths are nearly colorless. Pale colors can exhaust well; blacks never exhaust completely.

Direct application refers to any process where the dyes are put directly on the cloth in a concentrated concoction without a bath. Typically, the dye is dissolved in a small amount of water with other auxilliaries such as thickeners, acids, alkalis, or salts. This dye mixture is then applied by printing, painting, stamping, flinging, or other imaginative methods. Subsequent steps, batching or steaming, are required to form the dye-fiber bonds; this is called fixing the dye. The colored goods must now be washed to remove the auxilliaries that were in the dye mixture. When done properly, nearly all the dye fixes to the cloth, even dyes that do not exhaust well in a dye bath. This method does not require heating of large volumes of water nor disposal of dye baths, making it more economical and reducing environmental impact. Small-scale dyers rarely use direct application to lay down a large field of level color. In most direct-application techniques, level dyeing is not a goal.

Immersion dyeing usually gives the best penetration, meaning that the entire cross-section of the fiber is uniformly colored. Direct applications may reach only the surface of the fiber.

Packaged Dyes

Packaged dyes are quick and easy; just follow the instructions. As there is no magic universal dye that works for all fibers, these packages contain more than one type of dye and multiple assistants like surfactants, salts, and leveling agents. Say you’re dyeing a nylon tutu: One of the dyes fixes to the nylon, while the dyes for cotton go down the drain. The cost of one package is nominal, but if you dye large quantities, it would become expensive. You are paying for the work of premixing the color and the dye assistants as well as the dyes you are not using. If you just want to play with some shibori techniques, use packaged dyes for any immersion process. You can move on to other dyes when you need more control over color, fastness, or cost.

Silk Paints

Another option for beginners is silk paints. Many brands and colors are available, and they come in little bottles ready to use, so you don’t need much equipment. Silk paints are often used in techniques requiring gutta lines to control the spreading. The color you see as you paint is close to the final color, and the colors are mixable. You can focus on your painting with little thought of technique. These so-called paints are generally concentrated solutions of acid dyes. Because these dyes have limited solubility, alcohol or another additive is added to the mix to increase the solubility. The alcohol does evaporate, and exposure to the fumes has become a health issue for some people who work extensively with these products. Silk paints require a fixing process--usually steaming, but some involve a chemical fixative. Follow the instructions given by the manufacturer. You can improvise a steamer in your kitchen (but don’t use equipment you will cook in); specialized steamers are also available. Using silk paints could be a way to explore some of the resist techniques in shibori.

Like packaged dyes, silk paints can become expensive if you need large quantities. My biggest objection to these dyes are the wimpy colors I get on very light-weight china silk, which I like to use. If you use a heavier or denser silk --charmeuse or crepe de chine-- you may find silk paints satisfactory for you.

LANASET DYES

Lanaset dyes are manufactured by Ciba Specialty Chemicals and first became available to the small scale dyer in the USA in the 1980’s. They are sulphonated 2:1 metallized acid dyes that are applied under acid conditions, a pH of 4.5-5.0. There is little chance for damage to the silk at this pH, which is ideal for silk. The silk comes out of Lanaset dye baths soft and lustrous. The Lanasets have very good wash- and light-fastness. They have excellent exhaustion, 96%, and all the colors tend to exhaust at the same rate, a real advantage when dyeing a mixed color.

There are 13 manufactured colors (see Table ) and the palette is more subdued than fiber reactive dyes, but I like the Renaissance colors. There are 3 outstanding colors in the set, the violet, the turquoise and the black. The violet is very brilliant and adds fire to fuchsias, purples and burgundies. The turquoise is also flashy and makes bright greens and beautiful aquas and blue-greens. But black is the star for me, it is a neutral , jet black. This quality of black is very hard to mix yet 50% of the goods dyed in the USA are dyed black. I use a lot of black as a base color because I have never achieved black in an overdye; I can get grays and maybe even charcoal, but never a true black. Blacks are always hard to dye, you must saturate the all dye sites on the fiber to get a true black. To get black you use a the highest DOS, 6-8%, process longer and in general use the most extreme good dyeing conditions to get a deep black. Over dyeing does not have these optimum dyeing conditions needed for true black.

DOS, or depth of shade, is a central concept to controlled dyeing. The ratio between the fiber and the dye is what determines the darkness of the color. The same black dye at DOS of 0.8% will give you a pale gray, at 3.5% a charcoal grey and at 6-8% a black. To understand more about this kind of calculations see the chapter on color and formulation.

Lanasets do have a weak red range, although there are 3 red dyes, none of them have a brilliant fuchsia base. I use a red from a different set of dyes to expand the red color range. I use a very bright blue based red, Ricoamide Red 3BN 140, sometimes called polar red. This allows me to get bright reds, fuchsias and vibrant red violets. This dye is compatible with the Lanaset dyes but the pH must be 5.0. Unfortunately the fastness of this dye is much less than the Lanaset, so process it longer, let it air dry for 24 hours before washing and in general be much gentler with it. It does discharge to an off white but the decoloration happens very fast compared to the Lanaset dyes. So if you have a mixed color with both Lanaset and Ricoamide and you discharge it, the Ricoamide will discharge first and completely before any of the Lanasets show any color change.

Another aspect of the Lanaset dyes that I like for my shibori has to do with the discharge colors. All the Lanaset dyes do discharge and some go to an off-white but many go to a more interesting color. The violet discharges to a yellow (see Table for all the discharge colors). These discharge colors can add an exciting halo of color to your shibori work.

The Lanaset dyes are relatively insensitive to the liquor ratio and that allows us to work at long, 40:1 or greater, liquor ratios required to get an even dyeing on silk or to cover our tortured and scrunched silk. These dyes are composed of large molecules and therefore diffuse slowly and have a slow strike rate making them unsuitable for over dyeing the poles but easy to get level colors. The dye bath contains little at the end of dyeing and is therefore easy to dispose.

Since Lanaset is an exhaust dye the DOS are pretty low, but of course it depends on your process. But for a rule of thumb, off-whites are >0.25%, pale colors 0.25-0.80%, midtones 1-3%, dark colors <3% and black 6%. If you get good exhaustion you can probably reduce the DOS and with poor exhaustion you may need to increase them a bit.

The process for immersion dyeing with Lanaset dyes is simple. Prepare the dye bath with the auxiliaries, adjust the pH. Add the silk, then the dye, heat slowly to 85°C/185°F/185°F. Hold for 1 hour, cool. Remove the silk from the dye bath, hang to dry.

AUXILIARIES FOR LANASET

Acetic acid-sodium acetate buffer

The dyebath should have a pH of 4.5 –5.0 during the dyeing procedure. Everytime you add something, silk or dye, to the bath the pH can change. An acetic acid-sodium acid buffer is used to maintain the pH relatively constant even with additions. The sodium acetate and acetic acid work as a team, so as long as both are present they can keep the pH constant. Sodium acetate is a white salt available from chemical or dye suppliers, acetic acid is available as a 5% solution at the grocery store (white vinegar), a 56% solution from dye suppliers, or as glacial acetic acid (96%) from chemical suppliers. Acetic acid is also used by photographers so you can get small quantities at places where photographers buy chemicals for developing, just be sure that it is colorless, I have seen acetic acid for photography that is yellow. You will use a large amount of vinegar because it is so dilute. Shipping the 56% acetic acid is expensive because it must be treated as a hazardous material in transit. If you can find a local source it will be cheaper in the long run. I buy glacial acetic acid from a local chemical supplier, I use 2-4 gallons per year and I dye a lot. The most concentrated acetic acid is called glacial acetic acid because it will solidify, looking like a glacier, just below room temperature. Acetic acid is a lachrymator (makes you cry like onions) and strong acids are corrosive to flesh so take precautions, wear apron, gloves and goggles) when handling concentrated acid. I dilute the glacial acetic acid 1:1 with water and then use the 48% acid for the dye baths because it is easier to handle.

Some dyers have started using citric acid in place of acetic acid. Citric acid is a white crystalline powder and much easier to transport and less dangerous to flesh if you spill it. In many cases the substitution of citric for acetic acid is fine but not here. The acetic acid and sodium acetate make a buffer system and changing one component destroys the buffering capacity. You can make a buffer of citric acid and sodium citrate( or soda ash) but is works at a different pH than the acetic acid – sodium acetate buffer, citric acid-sodium citrate buffer works best at pH3.1, too low for Lanaset dyes. Vinegar is easy to use.

I add 1 mL of acetic acid for each liter of water that I have in my dye bath and a tablespoon of sodium acetate, just keep a record of how much you added for your dye pot and then use that amount the second time. How much you will need depends on the pH of your water. Just remember that you need both of these additives to create the buffer solution and the amount of each is not important , you just add enough to get to the right pH. If you measure the pH and it is too high, >5.5 , you need to add more acid, drop by drop, to lower the pH and if the pH is too low, <4.5, you need to add sodium acetate, tablespoon by tablespoon, to raise the pH.

Glauber's salt or sodium sulfate

This salt slows down the bonding of the dye to the fiber and encourages more even dyeing. The sulfate ions, SO₄^2-, from the salt compete with the dye, also an negatively charged ion, for the dye sites. The glauber’s salt is diffused into the dye sites before the dye. You can use more salt to slow down the reaction and less to speed it up . It also enhances exhaustion. A small amount is used, 2- 5% WOF for an immersion dyeing silk. You can buy small amounts from the same company that sells you the dyes or you can buy 25lb. bags from your local chemical supply houses.

Albegal SET

This amber viscous liquid is a surfactant designed to be used with the Lanaset dyes, it is a retarder/leveler to encourage level dyeing. It also improves the compatibility of the dyes, and promotes migration and exhaustion. Use 2% WOF for silk, too much will interfere with the processing. You can change the amount used to get the effect that you want. This will foam up like most surfactants. Buy it with the dyes.

THE PROCESS

Using the WOF of your silk, calculate the dye and additives required.

PREPARED THE DYE BATH

Prepare the dye bath in a inert vessel large you can heat. The amount of water in the dye bath should be 30 - 50 times the WOF. (Remember 1g of water equals 1mL of water.) Have enough water to allow all the silk to move freely. The water which should be not be hot, >40°C/104°F. If the water is hard, add sodium hexametaphosphate. Adding the water softener makes the bath cloudy or milky. Add a spoonful at a time until adding more softener does not change the appearance of the bath. This precipitates the interfering substances out of solution so they can no longer react. Then add the glauber’s salt, acetic acid and sodium acetate and stir to dissolve. Measure the pH and adjust the pH to be 4.5 to 5.0.

ADD THE SILK

Add the wetted out silk carefully so that it is all is submerged below the surface of the dye bath. If a bubble of air makes some of the silk float above the surface of the dye bath, that part will not dye. Fan folding can help as well as holding the one end as you push the other end into the bath, this leaves channels for the air to escape. Poke at the silk with a stick to get rid of the bubbles and move the bath around some. Avoid stirring in such a manner that the goods become one big clump in the dyebath. Run the dye bath for 10 minutes (no heat).

ADD THE DYE

Remove the silk from the dye bath and pour the disolved dye into the bath straining it. Stir it for a bit to make sure all the dye is dissolved and evenly distributed through out the bath. Then return the silk to the bath. When I dye scarves I add them one at a time to make sure each one is totally beneath the surface of the dyebath. Run the bath of 10 more minutes without heating.

LEVELING AND HEATING

The hardest part of pot dyeing is in moving the goods so that you get level dyeing. This is the method that I use for pieces of cloth or scarves:

Remove the silk from the bath. It should be a uniform light color now. Reintroduce each piece separately, opening it up in the process. You are doing two things with the silk, you are looking to see how even the color is and you are making new folds in the cloth so that it will dye more evenly.

If the silk looks fairly even you can now start to heat the dyebath. As the temperature rises you will need to will need to ensure that the color continues to go on evenly. Slow heating will give you more even dyeing. Ideally you would like the temperature to rise one degree each minute. I just set a temperature goal, say +20°C in 20 minuntes, set a timer and check the pot when the timer buzzes. I try to take the silk out of the bath and reintroduce it 2-3 more times before the temperature reaches 70°C/158°F or when it is too hot to handle. If the color looks even I stop with 2 times, but if the color is still uneven I continue taking the silk out, refolding it and putting it back in. If you heat it too fast you won’t be able to get the silk in and out enough before it is too hot to handle.

Even a piece of shibori that is all tied up will benefit from movement in the dye bath. You want the dye to reach all the accessible areas. You can move it around with a stick but sometimes you will need to put gloved hands in the dye pot and move the silk with your fingers.

Raise the temperature to 85°C/185°F, and hold it there for an hour. Holding the temperature at 85°C/185°F can involve turning the burner on and off, or covering the pot or setting the pot over the pilot light. This is where you must take care not to damage the silk. The dwell time can be adjusted; if all the dye is exhausted you can stop heating and if you are trying for a true black you might want to increase the time dramatically.

COOLING

Allow the dye bath to cool down to at least 40°C/104°F. Take the lid off. I often leave the pot set overnight to cool down. A lot more of the dye fixes as the pots cools. You can use a fan to hurry the cooling. When it has cooled down, you can remove the silk and hang to dry. I spin mine out in the washing machine to make it easier to handle. The dye is still active until it is dry the first time so you don’t want to wash it before it has dried and the heat of the dryer can change the color a bit.

Once dry you can wash it once in a gentle cycle, hot water and a gentle detergent such as Orvus Paste. There will be very little if any loose dye in the wash water.

ADJUST AND ADAPT

This procedure is given as a starting place. If you are dyeing a pale color and the dyebath is exhausted, that is nearly colorless by the time you get to 85°C/185°F you won’t gain anything by heating it longer. On the other hand for very dark colors you may want to heat longer.

Evenness in very pale colors can be a problem because all the dye fixes so quickly. To increase levelness keep the starting temperature low, increase the amount of water in the dyebath, or add the dye in portions- add 1/3 of the dye and let that process for a bit, remove the goods, add another 1/3 and process again making sure there is good contact of all of the goods with the dyebath and then add the final 1/3 of the dye. You will learn what works for you.

Lanaset has been successfully dyed in a washing machine. The agitation of the machine will increase the levelness of the dyeing. But you can not heat to 85°C/185°F in a home washing machines so the exhaustion will be down.

NYLOMINE DYES

PRO CHEM NAME	C.I. NAME	COMMENTS
WFA FlavineYellow 107A	Acid Yellow 250
WFA Sun Yellow 119	Acid Yellow 19
WFA Golden Yellow 199c	Acid Yellow 199
WFA Bright Orange 233	Acid Orange 156	From MSDS
WFA Red 338	Acid Red 138
WFA Fuschia 349	Acid Red 249	Not a Nylomine.
WFA Bright Red	Acid Red 151
WFA Red 366	Acid Red 266
WFA Rhodamine Red 370	Acid Red 52	Not a Nylomine
WFA Polar Red 390	Acid Red 131	Not a Nylomine
WFA Navy 413	Acid Blue 113
WFA National Blue 425c	Acid Blue25
WFA Blue 440	Acid Blue 40
WFA Turquoise 478	Acid Blue 185
WFA Brilliant Blue 490	Acid Blue 90	Not a Nylomine
WFA Black 672	Acid Black 194
WFA Green 725	Acid Green 25
WFA Green 728	Acid Green 28
WFA Brilliant Violet 817	Acid Violet 48

The dyes that are not Nylomines are Ricoamides. The Nylomines and Ricoamindes share many of the same dyes.

Water

Most municipal water is chlorinated. Chlorine is a bleach and will effect the dye color. The amount in the water varies wildly from day to day. Your water may be hard and it might contain heavy metals. Your municipal water supplier can give you an analysis of the water. They are required by law to have this information available. As a dyer, you want to know if the water hard, how hard it is, and whether it contains interfering heavy-metal ions like iron and copper. This will tell you about the quality of the water as it goes into the water distribution system; however, it may flow from your faucet with things it picked up in the water pipes--commonly rust (iron) and copper and, in a few unfortunate cases, lead. The municipal analysis is a starting place. A dye bath is mostly water, probably 99 percent, so the quality of the water determines the quality of the dyeing. It is also the most invisible or neglected dye bath ingredient.

Very simple tests for determining water quality are available from laboratory or swimming pool supply houses. They come in a jar with instructions and involve a strip or stick that you dip in the water. The strip has a colored reactive section that changes color in response to the contaminate. You match the color to a chart to determine the hardness or iron concentration. These can be useful to help you determine the quality of your water as it comes out of the tap.

[#23]

To compensate for hard water, add sodium hexametaphosphate to the dye bath or use softened water. Both these methods will also take care of any heavy metals in the water. The chlorine content is a more difficult issue, and many people just dye with it. A lot of the chlorine is lost in the water heater. There is a anti-chlor chemical, but I have never used it. I do have a carbon polishing filter that removes chlorine for dye bath water.

Safety Considerations

The two major hazards I encounter in my work are inhaling the very finely powdered dyestuffs and fumes from discharge procedures. Make sure you have good ventilation. Dust and fumes can circulate in a home and affect people in other rooms.

Any tiny particle that gets deep into your lungs can cause damage. Wear a particle or dust mask, available at any hardware store, when working with dye powders. Make sure it fits well. When doing discharge procedures, wear a respirator with acid gas cartridges.

A clean studio is a healthy studio. Spilled dye will dry into powder and find its way into your lungs. Wipe up any spills with water.

Some people develop allergies to certain dyes after exposure to them. The best way to deal with these allergies is to prevent them. Do not let any dye enter your body. Don’t eat it, don’t breathe it, don’t absorb it through your skin. In addition to the mask and respirator already mentioned, wear gloves when working with dye baths or wet dye on fabric. Consider wearing a plastic apron (especially if you are sloppy, like me!). Never use the same equipment for both dyeing and food preparation.

The best way to dispose of dye baths is the sewer system--it is designed for waste disposal. The amount of waste from home dyeing is insignificant in the total waste treated, even in a small village. If you work outside, you may have to carry the spent dye bath to the toilet for disposal.

GLOSSARY

ACIDS

for use in acid dye baths

Sulfuric acid, H₂SO₄. A strong acid. used for pH<3.5. A clear, colorless, odorless liquid.

Acetic acid, CH₃COOH. A weak acid. Used for pH 3.5-5.5. Acetic acid is a liquid that has a recognizable pungent odor. Vinegar is about 5% acetic acid with a pH 2.4-3.4. It can be purchased as 26% solution from shops that sell chemicals for developing photographs (sometimes it also contains a yellow colorant that renders it unsuitable for dyeing), or as a 56% solution from some dye suppliers (this must be shipped as a hazardous material and the shipping is thus expensive) and as glacial acetic acid (99.5%) from chemical suppliers (the name glacial comes from the fact that at slightly below room temperature it solidifies or freezes). . Acetic acid and sodium acetate form a buffer system that maintains the pH constant around pH 4.7.

Citric Acid, HOC(CH₂COOH)₂COOH. A weak acid but stronger than acetic acid. It is a white crystalline solid at room temperature. Widely occuring in plant and animal tissues, responsible for the pleasant sour taste of citric fruits. Easy to buy (used in the kitchen) and ship. Can fom a buffer with sodium citrate but this buffers works best around pH 3.1.

Acid salts

Ammonium sulfate, (NH₄)₂SO₄. A salt that is a white crystalline solid.

Sundye for September

2009-08-27T14:23:35Z

27 September 2009
Sunday, 1-6 PM
Entwinements Studio, 111 Allen, Yellow Springs OH 45387
Dye small projects in a fully equipped studio

Stamping on Cotton

We will use thickened fiber reactive dyes and stamps to print. I have many, many stamps but you can bring yours too (just put your name on them). Bring your cotton, rayon or other cellulose fiber or silk as a T-shirt*, yardage* or bag*. The cloth you want to print on should be white or light colored because dyes are transparent and you will see the ground color through the dye. Wash the cloth in hot water and dry before you bring it. Iron for a flat surface that prints clearly but wrinkled surfaces give interesting effects. I will have many colors in the fiber reactive dyes but the adventuresome can mix their own. You should have time to print 3 items , but that depends on the personality of the printer. The printed cloth can be taken home in a plastic bag and after 24 hours you can wash it and it will be ready to wear.

Come and play in my colors.

$25

Limited to 5 participants

Registration is on a first come biases, you are not registered until I have your money. You can call or mail in your registration. Dyeing is messy, wear appropriate clothes and bring gloves.

*We can make a group order to Dharma Trading, they have many scarves, T-shirts and clothing items and yardage that are ready to dye. I will need your registration , item(s) number and size and payment for the item(s) by the 15^th to get them here in time.

Registr

Stitched shibori, handwoven shibori

2009-07-16T17:04:25Z

We will be doing hand stitching to create resists for dyeing in our first Silk Shibori Session starting on 28th of July. We will also do fold and clamp (itajime).

There are many kinds of stitched designs and a few of the Japanese names are mokume, ori-nui, maki-age. I'm not trying to teach you Japanese but if you search this blog for these terms you will find much information. Also see pages 85-90 of my book. We even had a challange on maki-age and there is a lot of info and pics.

As of this moment all participants in the class are also weavers. Some stitched shibori can be done while weaving. Here is an article about handwoven shibori if you have not seen much. The way you compress the cloth, and how to dye the resisted cloth are the same whether you have laid in the the gathering threads while weaving or used a needle after the cloth is woven. Patterns and spacing are related too. Hand stitched, not done on the loom, is more versatile. It is hard to create images on the loom.

Here are pictures of a woven shibori project start to finish. Weavezine recently had an article about woven shibori on a rigid heddle loom. The weakest link in most of these projects is the dyeing of the shibori. I hope this short sesion in stitched shibori would lead to sucessful dyeing of any future shibori project, woven or not, undertaken.

SILK SHIBORI SUNDYES REARRANGED

2009-07-11T00:15:59Z

To accomodate prearanged events, it is vacation time after all, I have changed the dates and structure.
The instructions have been moved from Sunday to two week days. You still need time to do some stitching at home. We have 3 participants and it is a go. Room for 2 more people each week.

We have chosen these dates:

Session 1-stitched resists
Tuesday, 28 July. 7-9 PM -meet to receive materials and instruction on stitched resists
Sunday, 2 August , 1-6 PM- dye prepared samples

Session 2-fold and clamp
Monday, 3 August- meet for more instruction, materials, trouble shooting
Sunday, 9 August-1-6PM -dyeing and photos

They are not mutually exclusive; you can do more stitching for 9th and you can do some folding and clamping on the 2nd.The best way to do this is to take both sessions; you will learn things you might want to try again; but life is very congested for most people these days and if you want to take only one session you can.

Both sessions: $140 with book, $120 if you already have my book.
One session: $90 with book, $70 if you already have my book.

Class Posponed

2009-07-09T15:33:02Z

I knew that the silk shibori class was too close to the dates to get much enrollment but now I've had a request to do it later. So we will do it later, don't have dates yet.

In August the Sundyes will be small projects completed in one day they will all be natural dyes: Osage Orange (a Yellow), Madder, and Indigo again. With this pallette a wide range of colors can be achieved, for example indigo over Osage Orange for greens and indigo over madder for purples.

July Sundye

2009-07-05T01:09:11Z

Shibori on silk

12, 19, 26 July (3 weeks)

fold & clamp, stitched, capped
Meet at the Entwinements studio Sunday afternoon, 1-6PM
5 Students, $120 includes materials or $140 with book (autographed)

No prior knowledge of shibori or dyeing is needed and all levels are welcome. We will explore the techniques that only require simple tools but can create many interesting patterns such as fold & clamp (itajime), hand-stitching (mokume, ori-nui, etc.) and capping (maki-age).

•   Each student will receive 10 sample size pieces of silk to learn the techniques, a marking crayon and some other materials
•   Entwinements has a large supply of templates and clamps for your use in fold and clamp
•   Appropriate dye baths in colors requested by the students will be available the 2nd and 3rd weeks. Five colors each week.
•   Each student can have additionally one large (about 1 yd.) piece of silk of their choice (from the samples) for a final project
•   Each student will supply their own hand sewing tools and have a copy of SHIBORI: creating color and texture on silk.

12 JULY
Receive materials, Instructions and demonstrations on each technique. Look at samples and plan your work. Homework is to do the hand stitching.

19 JULY
Bring stitched samples for dyeing. Other samples can be folded and clamped at the studio. We will then soak and dye the samples that are ready. There will be 5 requested colors and you can dye in each pot if you wish. Open samples and study the results. Plan final project.   Stitching or other prep work can be done at home .

26 JULY
•   Final dye day; 5 more pots of colors the students request. You can dye in one or all pots. Open and display and photography of all projects.

You can see examples in the book or at entwinements.com. With only 5 participants we should be able to accommodate to everyone. Just let me know what you would like. Please email (karrenatentwinements.com, change the at to@) with any questions.

Photo Group at Flickr for Sundyes

2009-06-17T22:55:52Z

I have created a group at Flickr, Sundyes at Entwinements, so that participants can upload photos. You need and invitation to become an uploading memeber, and I think that I have sent invitations to all participants. If you haven't received your invitations just let me know and I'll send you a new one. Everyone, even non-participants, can see the photos. They can be photos taken at the workshop or even more interesting is what your projects look like when after the workshop. What do those wonderful colors look like after they have dried and/or then been used in a project.

Please share! The more we see the more we learn. Sometimes it is easier to learn form someone elses' project because we didn't come with any expectations for their project and we can see it for what it really is.

Indigo Sundye

2009-06-16T00:40:23Z

I think people enjoyed painting their skeins last Sunday afternoon. A little color here, a little more there and soon everyone is into fun colors.

Now on to indigo, the oldest and yet the hardest dye to use. There is already a lot on this blog about indigo since the Japanese love indigo so and it is the most forgiving dye to use for shibori, so it is great for shibori novices. Let's just look at some pics of indigo dyed cloth:

This is a T-shirt with a few lines of stitched shibori

I hope you can see how many colors of indigo there are.

I will be preparing the vat, all you have to do is bring your yarn or cloth ready to dye. The fiber should be cotton or other vegtable fiber to take the high pH of this vat. For those who want to know about making the indigo vat you can read instructions here.

Paint a skein

2009-06-11T17:28:21Z

PAINTING SKEINS

This is a more difficult project than the dip dyeing. I think that the fiber reactive dyes are more difficult, but the best option for cotton and other cellulostic fibers.

You may paint a skein or a warp. We learned last week that when there are only 5 people in the workshop and when they co-operate, you can dye a lot more than 8 oz. of fiber. Every one will get to do their 8 oz. then if time and materials allow, you can do more. Come prepared for more.

In painting you are putting colors side by side, not layering them. This means that you can put red and green beside each other with out getting the dreaded mud brown.

However this is also what makes the process more difficult. You have painted one spot your favorite color and now what color do you put beside it? Any color in the world, this can be too many choices. What will it look like?

I suggest that you bring a picture, variegated yarn or natural object to help. We can then pick 3-5 colors from that design inspiration for the first painting experience. Once you have painted one skein, you might have more or new ideas about the second.

Here is a picture that Carol sent me, I suspect it was taken with the Hubble Telescope up high:

I see periwinkle blue, oranges, dark browns and little bits of off-white.

So bring a magazine pictures, or a sample of a color combination to get started.

So any skein will work. A warp will not muddle all the colors together when you weave, but put in lots of figure 8 ties to keep the warp in order. Normal size skeins will blend the colors together. If you make long skeins, say 10 yds. (a warping board will allow you to do this) you will get sucesive bands of colors.

Anyhow, come with some damp cellulose yarn and have fun with colors!

Dip Dyeing --Sundyes

2009-06-08T17:39:45Z

We had a great time yesterday. Five women came, they were nice to each other, helped each other, learned from each other-- we had a great time. I forgot to take pictures, sorry.

We did have one yarn that looked beautiful in the dye pot but washed out latter, so now we think it was not silk. This is a relatively common problem in dyeing workshops. I won't start speculation about why this happens because it could go on for far too long. Just double check before you invest a lot of time dyeing. Checking can be a simple as dipping a 2" piece of the yarn in a dyepot for 5 min., remove and rinse.   Or a burn test.

We used Lanaset Dyes yesterday in six colors, suede, wheat, sage green, pink, bright blue and vivid purple. I had 20L of dye bath mixed up and we just ladled some out to use for our dyeing, the women asked how I mixed it up. Most of the time the bath additives are given in terms of WOF but I general determine the amount of additives by the volume of the bath, a standard industry procedure. Both work but yesterday it was more convenient to use the volume approach.

I measure the volume of water. For each liter(about a quart) of water I added:

    * 2g of Glaubers salt (sodium sulfate)
    * 2g of a penetrant such as Albegal SET or Cibafluid LA
    * a pinch of sodium acetate
    * 1mL 49% acetic acid

Then I measure the pH, I want a pH of 4.5. If it is higher than 4.5 I add more acid-- drop by drop, if it is lower than 4.5 add teaspoons of sodium acetate. Measure the pH again. Keep adjusting until 4.5 is reached.

The amount of acid needed will depend on your water, my water comes from a limestone aquifer and requires a lot of acid. You may need less. The sodium acetate and acetic acid are used to maintain the pH of the bath; it does not matter the absolute amount that you use, it just matters what the pH is.

Dip dyeing is a form of immersion dyeing

2009-05-27T01:16:24Z

IMMERSION DYEING is the most common form of dyeing. You make a bath in a pot or vat with lots of water and the dissolved dye, then add the prepared fiber. Heat and stir until the dye is fixed to the fiber. Then the fiber is removed from the bath, rinsed and dried. In this process the dyeing and fixing are all one process.

It is possible to spread the dissolved dye on the surface of the fiber, then go though a process to fix it to the fiber. This is called DIRECT APPLICATION and the dye can be applied to the prepared fiber by painting, silk screening, stamping, etc. Dyes are usually fixed by steaming but some can be fixed at a lower temperature for a longer time. After fixing the fibers are rinsed and dried.

The Dip Dye a Skein workshop (7 June) will do immersion dyeing and the Paint a Skein workshop (14 June) will be direct application.

What does dip dyeing look like?

2009-05-25T22:05:32Z

Every one has a different term for this kind of dyeing. Each term describes a different aspect of the process or results, so they all are correct in their own way. I call it dip dyeing which describes the process, others call it ombre (French for shaded), gradation dyeing which is how it looks.. It can be monochromatic or not.

I am a visual person so here are some pics of one skein I dip dyed then wove.

I started with a about 8oz. skein of Henry’s Attic PFD coconut silk. This yarn, 60%silk, 40% wool is fine and light weight yet the texture allows an open sett and the cloth to still be stable. Unfortunately this yarn has been discontinued and replaced with a smooth yarn. Anyhow here is the skein.

I must apologized for the shadows in the photo, I took the pics outdoors to get true colors and it was overcast. Just as I took the first picture we had what the English call a sunny interval.
I dyed the whole skein a sand color then I dipped a small part of the skein in a black dye pot. I did not get black, it is difficult to get a true black, but I got shades of grey from charcoal to light. On important point here is that I layer the black on top of the beige color, dyes are transparent and you can see both the sand and the black colors. Here is what is left of the skein after I dyed it and used it for a weaving project.

Note that there are no sharp lines where a color change occurs, rather the grey starts pale and then becomes more intense the fades back to sand color gradually. No abrupt color changes but gentle shading from one color to the next.
I wove this on a rigid heddle loom, sett 10 epi, plain weave, and used just this yarn for the warp and weft.

I love this cloth! Random streaks of grey that cross each other. The hand of the cloth is nice too (you’ll have to take my word until you can touch it your self), stable but not too dense or heavy. The cloth looks handwoven because it is hand-dyed. It has the look of khadi ( the cloth that played a part in Gandhi’s rebellion, handspun, handwoven and hand-dyed) even if the scale is different.
The special yarn could be used in just the warp in which case the grey streaks would just be length- or warp-wise. Or just used in the weft and the streaks would be cross- or weft-wise.

When you see a larger expanse of cloth you can see that the rhythm of the streaks of the grey is different in the warp and the weft.

This is because they are taken from the same skein and each warp is much longer than the length of each weft shot or pick.
Then I finished the edges, hemmed with an embroidery floss to make a tiny towel.

What is a tiny towel? It is an answer to the question, “what are you making?” In my mind I’m just trying to make beautiful, sensuous cloth. Of course the edges have to be finished too.

Now about the possibilities of this technique and your skein:

• You can bring a skein of 8 oz. or less. Must be an animal fiber to dye with the acid dyes we will use. This will allow everyone a chance to dye their skein during the workshop. Half a pound of yarn is enough for a small project.

•    The yarn can be white, natural or a pale color. It is hard to over-dye black and see the results. Remember that dyes are transparent and you will see the first color through the second. If you start with yellow or a pale neutral color you can get just about any color except white by overdyeing. If you start with an bright purple the colors you can achieve by overdyeing are limited.
•    Your yarn should be in a loose skein with many figure eight ties to keep it from tangling during dyeing. It should be scoured and ready to dye. If you can bring it damp, from scouring or just soaking overnight, it will be ready for the dye pot. If it is dry it can take ½-1 hr. to soak in water to get ready to dye.
•    I will have the resources to dye your yarn one color and then over-dye a part of it. In the example above the whole skein was dyed sand then dip dyed in black. Or you can just dip dye the skein to get white and one color (example in white and red) or just one color on top of your pale colored yarn.

There are many possibilities with this dyeing. You could have the dip-dyed yarn in only bands or stripes. If the yarn was divided into two skeins both could be dyed the base color and only one skein dip dyed and you would have coordinating skeins. I’ve made a short warp with a well secured cross and many figure eight ties that I will dye. The result will be less random and lead to a graduated color in the whole piece. We’ll see. What fun possibilities!

TO CLASS PARTICIPANTS:Before you come I ask you to email me your ideas on what color scheme you would like to dye. Something like shades of blue, white with sunflower yellow or wheat with moss green. This will give me time to mix the colors and have some color you might like when you arrive. I expect you will want to try some thing different as you see others results. It is just nice to have a starting point that reflects more than my taste.

Acid dyes for animal fibers

2009-05-24T03:18:35Z

Our 7 June Sundye will use acid dyes. Acid dyes will only color animal fibers and nylon because of their similar chemistries. Wool is an animal fiber but what else is? Here are some description from the Year of the Natural Fiber and links for those who like to know more:

Alpaca wool - Alpaca is used to make high-end luxury fabrics, with world production estimated at around 5 000 tonnes a year

Angora wool - The silky white wool of the Angora rabbit is very fine and soft, and used in high quality knitwear

Camel hair - The best fibre is found on the Bactrian camels of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, and baby camel hair is the finest and softest

Cashmere - Cashmere is exceptionally soft to the touch owing tothe structure of its fibres and has great insulation properties without being bulky

Mohair - White, very fine and silky, mohair is noted for its softness, brightness and receptiveness to rich dyes

Silk - Developed in ancient China, where its use was reserved for royalty, silk remains the "queen of fabrics"

Wool - Limited supply and exceptional characteristics have made wool the world's premier textile fibre

You can bring any of these fibers to dye with acid dyes or nylon. Other fibers will not dye with these dyes.

The following week in Paint a Skein will will work with different dyes that color cotton and other cellulose fibers.

Scour

2009-05-18T04:44:59Z

Scouring fibers is the process of removing waxes, oils, dirt, finishes and anything else that can interfere with dye uptake. Scouring is the most important step to good dyeing. If there are blotches of oils or perspiration in the fibers the dye will be a different color in those areas. At the end of the scouring process the fiber should be free of interfering chemicals and nearly white. Fibers in this condition are called Prepared For Dyeing or PFD.

Think of scouring as a vigorous washing that removes all contaminates and leaves behind no residue. You can do it yourself or you can have some one else do it.

I could write a lot about scouring and still not cover your situation, so I’m going to try to keep it simple for beginning dyers.

1.   You can just wash your yarn and hope it works. This works 80% of the time with purchased white or natural yarn.
2.   You can buy yarn that is PFD.
3.   You can do a true scour, this is best when you know or suspect the yarn is dirty.

1.JUST WASH YOUR YARN
After you have made your yarn into a skein and secured it with many loose figure eight ties you can wash it. The choice of detergent is important here; home laundry detergents can have bluing, optical whiteners and perfume that they leave behind to interfere with the dyeing. We have specialized detergents for this: Synthrapol and Orvus Paste (you can get a small amount of these from me). Otherwise choose the simplest detergent you can get your hands on; no perfumes, should be colorless to pale yellow- baby shampoo for example. Wash in hot water with a bit of detergent. If you see dirt come out into the wash water, wash again. Rinse 3-5 times to make sure all the detergent is gone. Wring. No need to dry before dyeing, this first step of dyeing is to wet out the fiber.

2. BUY PFD YARN.
You can buy fibers that are commercially scoured or scoured and bleached that are labeled PFD. These should be fine if they have not been soiled waiting for dyeing. Buying PFD is a time and hassle saver.

You can buy yarn that is ready to dye from your local hand-spinner. She usually has cleaned the wool before spinning and she can tell you exactly what she did and how much lanolin is left in the wool. Tell her you want to dye it and does she think it needs to be washed again?

I know of two manufactures that make a wide range of PFD yarns that are available in many retail stores: Henry’s Attic ( most of their yarns are PFD) and Brown Sheep Company (avoid the Superwash wool and colored yarns). Visit their websites to find a retailer near you. There are other sources too, but maybe have a more limited range. White spun silk yarns are usually PFD as are white or natural perle cottons. The rayons and other regenerated cellulose fibers such as Tencel, bamboo, soy silk etc. are pretty clean because of the manufacturing process. I also have some extra PDF yarns I know dye well that you can buy, including Henry’s Attic Coconut Silk (a textured silk/wool yarn), call if you want to see what I have.

3. A TRUE SCOUR
The scouring process differs by what you are trying to remove. Cotton comes with naturally occurring waxes and pectins that are difficult to remove. Wool comes with vegetable matter, burrs and such that get caught in the fleece, and lanolin produced by the animal. Reeled silk has both the silk fiber, fibroin, and the gum, sericin. The sericin has been removed in spun yarn and all supple silk yarns. Tussah silk and linen are challenging to prepare for dyeing.

Commercial yarns may be bleached, or have bluing or optical whiteners added, all to make them appear whiter. Any chemicals or residue left in the yarn can interfere with dyeing. Finishes, wash-and-wear, wrinkle resistant, mercerized, singed, flame retardant, water repellent, water proof, antistatic finish, peach finish and stain resistant, can be a problem. Some of these, the wash-n-wear, wrinkle and stain resistant ones, are a plastic or resin type coating on the fibers and are quite effective at blocking the dye from penetrating the fibers. I find it best to avoid these finishes. Other process, mercerizing, singeing, degumming, pre-shrinking , do not leave chemicals behind to block the dye penetration but they do effect the color. Mercerized cotton will dye a much more brilliant, lustrous color than the same cotton unmercerized. Degummed silk will dye lighter than the same silk with the gum; the gum is a protein too and also dyes with the protein silk fiber.

Hand-spinners deal with cleaning fibers and getting it ready for spinning and are a great source of information. The more you know about what you are trying to remove the easier it will be.

Here is a general scour process:
•   Soak the yarn in water to cover for 30 min. or more.
•   Use a dyepot for the actual scour.
•   Add 1 or 2 gallons of water, enough to cover the yarn and allow it to move freely in the bath.
•   Add 1 Tbsp. soda ash and ½ tsp. Synthrapol for each gallon of water.
•   Add yarn and heat to boiling. Move the yarn gently in the bath so that all parts of the yarn are exposed to the hot bath.
•   Simmer 10 min. for wool and 30 min. for cotton.
•   Remove cotton from the hot bath. To avoid felting wool, allow it to cool to warm and remove to a rinse that is the same warm temperature.
•   Rinse the yarn 3-5 times. Cotton can be wrung and is ready for use. Wool needs a 20 min. soak in a vinegar bath (1Tbsp. white vinegar per gallon) then wrung.

No need to dry before dyeing, this first step of dyeing is to wet out the fiber.
If you have questions feel free to contact me directly.

Making skeins for dyeing

2009-05-13T12:06:56Z

Yarn is dyed in my studio in skein form. This loose open form can go into the dyepot and all parts can get dyed. Few purchased yarns are in this skein form, so how do you rewind the yarn into a skein?

Spinners do this often and have tools to help. The tools are niddy noddys and skein winders but you don't need a tool to do it a few times. You can use tools you might have for warping, a board or pegs, a helper or a chair back.

Here is some help:

How to Wind Yarn Into a Skein
Finishing Yarn and Wrapping a Skein - Tutorial A You Tube video using a chair and making the figure 8 ties.
Making A Skein of Yarn With A Niddy Noddy This has a video that is helpful if you have never seen it done

When I have finished winding the skein I tie the two ends together in a bow. The bigger the bow the easier it is to find the end of the yarn when you go to use it.

To control the yarns strands in the skein and keep them from tangling figure 8 ties are inserted. Make sure these ties are very loose and there are 6 or more. When you move the skiens in water or the dyebath they can tangle if not well controlled with the figure 8 ties.

If you have yarn in pull out skeins or balls it can be helpful to put it in a bowl or large jar on the floor to free your hands for winding.