Tip Of The Week

If you are working with pastel colours in transfer dyes, it's worth marking the right side of the paper with a pencil.  It can be really quite difficult to tell which is the 'right' side when it has dried (and it does make a difference...).

Try It Out Tuesday : Avoiding Flat Colour

I need to make some pastel coloured lutradur and evolon, so decided to mix up some dye.  I've never really wanted pastel colours before, so, being an eternal optimist, I put less powder in than usual, and hoped for the best.  And, because I want rather a lot of the cloth, I mixed up a fair amount of dye... as you can see, I keep mine in coffee jars.  There's some lilac, some blue, some golden yellow mixed with scarlet and a darker red.
I keep the jars in a tray; that way, spills are kept to a minimum.  This is particularly important if you are working anywhere near wood.  Trust me, you will never get a transfer dye stain out of a wood floor...or cabinet...or anything you might be working near... sigh.

I use plain newsprint for my transfer dyes, if I want a large sheet; otherwise, I tend to use the cheapest possible copy paper for A4 and smaller.  Because I wanted  to use the dyes together, I simply took a pile of newsprint, put it onto the work surface and started sloshing on the paint.  You can see from the image above, that I really mean sloshing!  I want to

make sure that the paper is really well covered in the paint, as any missed parts will show up as white on the cloth...so the section on the right would have an interesting white triangle with a lilac blob in the middle.  Fine if you intend it...not so great if you don't.

When you take the first piece of paper off, you should find that some of the dye has soaked through onto the next paper.  This is good news... as you can then either continue to paint with the same colour, or add a second.

 The image to the left shows a piece of paper from later on in the dyeing, where the yellow/scarlet and the darker red had both soaked through.  As this was the last piece, I left it as it was.  It has some interesting patterning.

Then, I thought.... wonder if it works... so, when the paper dried, I tried some sample pieces.  As I had thought, the blue and purple were not strong enough; the reds, though, produced gentle, interesting colours.

 The red, on the left, had been combined with the blue; the yellow/scarlet with the red.  In both cases, you can see gentle variations in colour which I think are quite pleasing.  Tomorrow, though, I'll have to add some more dye powder to the mix and try again...  On the whole, I think I prefer to mix strong dye to keep in the jars, and add more water to the dye to produce pastels.  It's much easier to measure that way.

Wondering Wednesday : Ageing Spunbonded Fabrics

Sandy Snowden, a new reader here (welcome, Sandy, and everyone else who has joined us in the last week or so...), has asked a question about colouring spunbonds; she says;

"what is the best way to get an aged/tea dyed tint to the spunbonded fabrics. Not really into the garish transfer dyed colours. I tried something last year which didn’t work, and eventually soaked it in STRONG coffee. That did knock the brilliant white out a bit, but you couldn’t even say it was ecru."

First of all, though transfer dyes are strong when mixed at full strength, you should experiment with the proportions of water to dye powder to produce more gentle colours.  And remember that you can iron the dye out of the paper at least three times; I have got marks out of transfer dyed paper after five ironings.  As you iron the paper repeatedly, the colour becomes more and more faded, until it appears pastel in nature.  So if you use the early prints for something else, the later prints will give you the faded look you are seeking.

There is, in fact, a different technique in Lovely Lutradur for giving lutradur an aged appearance, so I won't repeat it here. Lastly, consider rust dyeing.  The image above is of Lutradur 30 which has been rust dyed.  Using Ferrous Sulphate to rust dye the lutradur would probably be the better bet to give an overall colour.  There are instructions for that technique in 'Exquisite Evolon' which would also work for the spunbonded fabrics. 

Hope that helps.  If anyone else has suggestions, please feel free to add them in the comments section!

Remember, you can always ask a question for Wondering Wednesday; send it to me here