I spent a couple of hours painting some fabric samples using Colorhue fabric dyes. These are highly concentrated and easy to use, meant for silk painting but I have used them successfully on cotton. I got mine from Rainbow Silks in the UK http://www.rainbowsilks.co.uk/SubCategory.cfm?SubCatId=110110The pink/orange piece was splatter, then painted and splattered again whilst the fabric was still wet.
The pink/gree/blue piece on the right was painted, then placed on a piece of clingfilm. I scrunched the fabric, sprinked salt onto the green area and then left it to dry overnight. The salt didn't pick up the dye in the way I expected but I like the speckles.
The (landscape?) piece on the left was painted and then I sprinkled long grain rice onto the green areas and left it to dry. If you click on the photo you will be able to see the texture from the rice.
The green and yellow fabric was created by wetting the fabric and painting a very watered down dye on. Then I scrunched the fabric and threw split peas on top.
The little bottles of dye are expensive but are so concentrated that they go a long long way. I added at least 50% water to the dye and I wet my fabric before painting it. The are easy to use and don't need fixing but I ironed mine to be sure. I used cotton poplin and the fabric feels exactly the same after dyeing as it did before. Each of my sample pieces is A4 sized, approx 11 1/2" x 8 1/2".
Diane expressed surprise that the dyes could be used on cotton so I cut one piece in half and really scrubbed it using detergent and hot water. It faded quite a bit, losing more yellow than blue. This isn't a problem for me as I will be using my fabric to make atc's, but if I needed the colour to be more permanent I would use procion dye instead.
6 comments:
You've got some interesting effects Wendy. I hadn't heard of these dyes. I like the different things you've experimented with. Wouldn't have thought of using rice or split peas. You've got me thinking now.
Cool paint effects!
Love the peas effect.
I've seen these dyes used on silk and been told point-blank they don't work on cotton! Have you tested the colorfastness after washing? Or maybe you don't care about that on these pieces...
Dyeing to know!
Good for you giving it a try!
I love people who take sampling seriously. Save me a ton of trouble....
Your fabric is beautiful, Wendy.
Beautiful, Wendy!
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