Dye Sample – 20 grams

Description

Test your material, your method and your ancillary chemicals and reactions, this is an appropriate packet of dye to see that you have everything right before committing to a bigger project.

• Check Colourfastness
• Check your temperatures
• Check your mordants, if using
• Check your timing

Click for more substantial pack sizes – mimosa shred, mimosa powder, logwood shred, madder shred, natural rust.

Using several small fabric samples you can remove each from the dye bath systematically as a means to calibrate your method. Small samples like this will also allow you to complete hobby-scale projects without having to order more dye than you will realistically need.

Smaller batched encourage you to work on:

• Precision
• Economy
• Conceptual changes
• Expensive fabric
• Batch consistency

We recommend using fabric pieces of approx 10cm by 10cm and that you isolate the aspect being tested, and test one aspect alone. So if you are studying the length of time that fabric is steeped in the dye and the effect of this time on the finished colourfastness, you should remove one fabric sample over a uniform time period. This might be that every ten minutes you remove a piece until you reach your maximum expected timescale (possibly leaving one or two pieces in for too long, just to give a complete result. If you test for two aspects in one go you risk confusing one cause with another effect, which may send you in the wrong direction for next time.