Many of my students seem to have difficulty when it comes to getting all the red Procion dye powder to dissolve. The picture above shows what happens when trace amounts of red that are not dissolved properly land on the fabric leaving spots or speckles of bright, bold color.
The solution to this common problem is very simple as you can see in the following video.
One of the key points is to use water that is warm to the touch. Be sure to make a paste first, and always filter any dye that contains even trace amounts of red in the mix.
Here are the results of the red that was filtered and "stuff and dumped" into a small container. No specks. Good mottling. Nice highs and lows of color.
Hope this helps in your quest for perfect results every time you dye using that pesky red powder!
7 comments:
Smashing video, Marjie! Thanks!
I noticed you didn't try and squeeze out any potential lumps in the knee high. I think I cut my knee high off way too close, and it will probably work better if I get another one and leave it much longer.
Good comment, Kristin. I was pretty ding dang sure I got most of them when I smashed them in the container. Any that got caught in the knee high would be very small and not that important in this particular recipe which was totally RED. If, for instance I was trying for a match or a color like purple that needs every last single bit then I would probably have squeezed out the knee high.
I have some red splotches in the fabric I dyed for my big quilt project but I'm stitching over it and hoping nobody is bothered by those areas. Not sure if I like how it's turning out, but don't know a better solution to covering them up.
Hi Marjie, thanks for open up for us, your Studio is great also you house. At last we got to hear your voice, which is nice and so personal to hear the teacher. You have a beautiful voice. I have had difficulties with my red dye powder, but will use your technique next time.
Thank you for the nice comments about my voice! I thought I sounded odd which is common because what we hear and what others hear ARE different. It really was the last thing on my mind when I made that video. I was worried that I wouldn't keep the container IN the picture frame or that I might say something really dumb or forget something important or have an accident where the camera got dumped into the sink! Then when it came out fine on the first take I was so happy that it wasn't until I put it on the blog that I actually heard myself...and being quite self critical I thought, "wow,do I sound whiney!" Then I let it go and now I have someone saying such a nice thing about my voice that I feel happy about that. Thank you! :-)
Terrific idea - this is SO helpful. I had not been letting the toe dangle into the cup and so the filtering process was not as effective as it should have been. I also got into minor difficulty trying to squeeze the last bits out of the toe - messy and ineffective.
I know it would be great to have professional quality video and audio, but in my view this "peek" is a solid success - and the price is certainly right for us!!
Thank you SO much for the time and effort to get these pictures published.
As I mention above to Kristin, sometimes I DO squeeze out the toe or rub the toe back and forth between gloved fingers to get any substantial grit of color that hasn't dispersed out of there. It really is amazing how much color is contained in one itty bitty bit of dye powder. If you have ever had a speck cling to your sink, and tried to rinse it away you will know that the color keeps trailing out and trailing out and then finally it's gone.
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