Marble LWI

Most dyers over fix anyay, dripak is cheaper and its alot more accessible for most ppk to get hold of, and its incredibly cheap in bulk. Under 50p a kilo.

Anyway, its nothing really to do with the amount of fixer, its to do with the relationship between tempertuare and ph.

The idea is that you push the ph up as far as you can with the soda ash and heat. All you need is a ph monitor, or cheaper still buit not very accurate, litmus paper. You need 30 degrees and above for procion mx dyes. The warmer the water and sodium carbonate solution, the higher the ph... so starting as hot as you the material can take, the reaction takes place quickly, and as it cools the ph drops, dye can still fix as low as 30 degrees celcius. Starting hotter means you dont need as much sodium carbonate to up the PH too. Sodium carbonate's solubility is around 22 grams per 100ml of water at 20 degrees.. you need warmer water for it to be soluble.. anyway.........

Although I usually dissolve the soda ash in warm water anyway, I top the water up with cold so I doubt its near 30 degrees by the time the fabric goes in... I'll remember that for next time though!

But Im a little confused...for swirl dyeing, I soak the fabric in soda ash first, then dry and then dye it...at which point the fabric is cold! Should I be adding the fabric to the soaking solution at a hot temp to get more fixer on it?

I guess as long as theres some sort of fixer in there, then the dye will get fixed fairly well anyway (Ive never had leaky dye probs and I use different methods every time, mostly because I cant remember what I did the last time )

At the time you put your dye in the solution or over the fabric, it should be warm, for the best reaction to take place The point the dye gets into contact with the sodium carbonate is when the reaction is at its most aggresive

I'm not saying that it actually has to be warm, I'm saying that the warmer the sodium carbonate/h2o solution is to start the higher the ph, meaning the less S/C you need to use, the reaction is also quicker when its warmer though too..

If you use colder water.. you need more sodium carbonate to get the same ph.... ifswim!

You go get much differnt effects .. slow dying and fast dying.. play with it!!!

oh m,y gosh i dont think my squished and battered brain will take all that! basically i want to dye my organic cotton wipes, does anyone want to do them for me seriously

oh hun I'm sorry I just like the science...

Really have a go at dying its really isn't difficult Find a jar, squish them in and go for it... or you could chuck them in the machine you can do LWI ( a bit!) in the machine too Find a sock or pair of tights you dont want...... stuff what ever you want inside it.. get everything nice and tight and stick it in the wash with a dylon sachet

I did mine direct on my work top, just laid some foil/cling film over & did it there ... it's thick enough not to run anywhere so is fine, then just rolled up the foil when I'd finished
Didn't even have any dye but had fabric paint & that mixed with a little water & shaving foam seemed to do the trick ... here is my attempt at marble dyeing These vests are for my gorgeous niece Honey.

oooooooooooh they are sooooooooooo cool
you clever lady you well done we love them we may have something simular on the go for Rufus Peter was most confused at my request for shaving foam and rubber gloves

Peter was most confused at my request for shaving foam and rubber gloves

David's first comment was 'is that my shaving foam!' not like he shaves often anyway!

Ok I was going to have a bash at dyeing Ruairidh's muslins but the linky not working now

I have dylon cold water dyes.