First consideration:
Smooth colors with a large piece or with a small piece?
Mottled or die-dye effect?
- Some steps are the same, some are similar, some are different
(makes it all easier); has a flat bottom to hold my protective items, measuring tools, cups, and spoons. A towel on the bottom collects stray powder, etc. It is easy to move from my 'dye studio' (the bathroom) into the closet. I measure the dye powder in the box to minimize its spread.
- A face mask is used every time working with dry dye powders. All experts say to do this. And, you never know when you'll drop an open canister of dye. It was Bright Orange.
- To the elbow-high heavy duty gloves.
- A flexible basting brush used to mix up the dye paste and to collect stray bits of dye on the edge of the cup.
- A funnel to help me pour dye water from the mixing cup into 18-ounce drink bottles.
- Labels for my dye bottles - telling me the amount of dye powder needed for that color as well as the date of the mixing.
- Small syringe (for dispensing small amounts of liquid meds) for the tiny amounts sometimes needed.
- Once an item goes into the dyeing process, it can never be used for food preparation ever again.
- NOT using Calsolene oil as it seems to irritate me: my hands ache badly and this isn't from dipping my hands in the water with it as I used my gloves - it must happen from fumes. Check out the safety warnings on it (and other chemicals too) if you want to use it.
- Salt and soda ash now come from pool supply stores.
- I mix up a large glass jug of soda ash water and keep that in my dye box.
- I rarely use urea. I've tested it's impact and don't find any- with my water. Your work might go better using urea in mixing up your dyes because of your water supply.
- Dyes - I use Dharma Trading. I started with them, they have great customer support.
- I use large flat bottom buckets most of the time for full immersion dying. Pedicure ones or storage ones. It's good to have an empty bucket nearby as sometimes fabric is moved temporarily while the dye bath is adjusted.
- A flat plate so, if I need a break, I can keep fabric submerged with it.
- Soda Ash Water is added gradually to the vat --- just a bit at a time, and not pouring it onto fabric. Taking time at this steps helps with smoothing colors. It needs to have at least 40 minutes here (longer is OK).
- Sealing plastic bags seem to make fantastic 'dye vats' for getting smooth colors when working with very small pieces. Of course, 9 inch by 9 inch fabrics fit beautifully in gallon size bags. Pretty easy to squish out all the air. With about 2 cups of dye water in the bag, the fabric floats so stirring isn't necessary.
- To fix the dye (keep it on the fabric), the pH has to go up; soda ash is used. Must be dissolved first.
- My water seems to have some buffering capability making getting the pH to 10.5 really challenging. I've been adding a lot of soda ash water then testing with test strips. Not ready to make a conclusion.
- Points out how your local water quality is a significant partner in all this.
