A couple days ago I did more experimenting with ice dyeing. Most ice dyeing instructions tell you to soak the fabric in soda ash solution for 15 to 30 minutes. That's fine if you are doing it yourself, but if you are doing an ice dye class or party, it makes it difficult for everyone to find their piece of fabric in the bucket, if there are 10 more in there. So I introduced the soda ash after sprinkling the dye powder on it.
I used two kinds of fabric, a bright, white Kona cloth and a light weight, linen-like, mystery fabric that I found in a drawer.
Below are pictures of each, with the Kona cloth one on top.
As you can see the two fabrics took the dye completely different.
Wish I knew what the mystery fabric was,
but alas, I don't.
You need all kinds of fabric, so I'm keeping both, but I like the Kona cloth one more.
Great experiment, Jeanne! I haven't done any ice dyeing for awhile, but your point about group dyeing makes sense. I know many dyers do the soda ash last if they are "Parfait" dyeing. Did you wait until the ice melted to add the soda ash, or while it was still frozen? So many alternatives! ;-) BTW, I'll bet your "mystery" fabric was cotton/polyester. I've had that happen on occasion, but it can still be used in projects where you need lighter shades.
ReplyDeleteHi Judy, thanks for reading my blog. I manipulated the fabric, placed it inside the container, topped it with ice cubes, then dye powder, and about 5 minutes later a teaspoon or so of soda ash, then placed the next fabric, followed by ice, dye, soda ash, etc. I also put some crunched up small plastic yogurt containers at the bottom of the gallon size pitcher, so that as the ice melts, the fabrics won't fall into the murky, melted water at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteThere very well could be polyester in the fabric that didn't turn out as vibrant, but I should be able to find a use for it.