Laura Murphy 100067755
I chose to try Rit Liquid Dye on a primarily cotton top. The tag on the top said it was 95% cotton and 5% spandex. I also dyed a tank top that didn’t have a label anymore but felt like it was also probably a mix of cotton and spandex. I didn’t want to do a burn test because I planned on actually using the tank still so I just went by feel. I wanted to dye 2 items so I could see the difference between dyeing a white fabric and a colored fabric.
One top was originally teal and the other was originally white. I expected to get a scarlet red (the name of the dye) color out of the white tank top and a purple color out of the teal top due to the merging red and blue colors. The tank top was lighter than expected, it turned out more of a fuschia red with slightly pinker tones than I would expect in a scarlet. The teal top did turn a purple shade but quite dark, almost a burgundy. The most surprising of all was that the drawstrings on the tops hood as well as the logo did not dye at all and came out the same original teal color. I can only assume these parts of the top were made of a different material that wouldn’t work with this dye. I absolutely love the unexpected two toned effect I got in the end and couldn’t have planned it better.
The dye said to add salt to the mix for cotton which was very interesting and I wasn’t sure why. So I did some research and discovered “What salt does, in high water ratio immersion dyeing, is reduce the tendency of the fabric to repel the dye. Since both the fabric and the dye are negatively charged they tend to repel each other. The addition of large quantities of salt reduces the electronegativity of both fiber and dye, making it easier for the dye to associate with the fiber so that it is located handy for the formation of a chemical bond” (All about…)
While I didn’t do a natural dye this time I am interested in this process and found a phenomenal resource on natural dyes that I included in my sources below.
https://www.marthastewart.com/1110589/fit-be-dyed
https://inhabitat.com/a-color-guide-to-the-best-plants-for-dyeing-fabric-and-fibers-naturally/
My comments on others blogs can be seen at the following links:
http://art3613.blogspot.com/2014/07/assignment-6-discharging-colour.html#comment-form
http://momsita.blogspot.com/2014/06/assignment-5-and-6-and-discharging-i.html#comment-form
This blog was closed for comments but I would have commented on their use of turmeric. I know I love tumeric milk tea but won’t drink it very often because I find it has an extreme yellow dye affect on my teeth and therefore I can assume it would be a phenomenal fabric dye. https://stormstudioart.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/fibres-dyeing-and-discharging/#comments
DISCHARGING
For my discharging experiment I used a sweater that is a blend of Rayon, Nylon and Spandex. I know this from the tag. I used this sweater because it no longer fits me and I didn’t have confidence in my ability to discharge and didn’t mind the idea of possibly ruining a garment I no longer wear anyway. I tried two different discharge agents so I could compare results. First I used lemon juice. I dipped a cup in lemon juice and then stamped it on the shirt. I did this many times and each circle I went over 2-3 times. I then placed the shirt in the sun to lighten. Next I did the same thing but with bleach instead of lemon juice. I used lemon juice on the body of the sweater and bleach on the sleeves. As you can see from my pictures the bleach had a much more dramatic effect. Both agents worked in very different ways. If I was going for a more subdued affect the lemon juice would be the preferred agent, if I was going for a more bold affect the bleach would be the preferred agent. I also noticed that with the lemon juice I didn’t have to be careful about drops or spills, if I rubbed them off they didn’t show in the final product whereas every spot of bleach showed significantly so if I was to do this again I would need to be much more careful with the bleach discharging. One idea might be to dilute the bleach to get an affect somewhere between the lemon juice and the bleach examples I did.
Before picture of the shirt I'm discharging color from:
http://gore-texchemart.blogspot.com/
https://www.threadsmagazine.com/2008/10/28/dyeing-with-bleach
Dying/Discharging Activity for family studies curriculum
I think it would be great to do a color theory project for students with dyeing and discharging at any level of the textiles curriculum. This would be a great idea for September to get students doing hands on things right away and to start talking about fabrics and elements of design and personal expression right away. The colors they chose to dye fabrics with and the resulting colors could be analyzed using the color wheel and color harmonies. Students would get hands on experience with multiple fabrics and types of dye and discharge agents but would also be doing a project on color theory and elements of design at the same time. I think it would be great to do this as a cross curricular project with the science teacher for the grade so students could work on their hypothesis, methodology, report writing, etc. I also think a tye dye activity with the twist of using only natural dyes would be another fabulous way to incorporate dyeing into the Textiles curriculum in NS.
My comments on others blogs can be seen at the following links:
http://momsita.blogspot.com/2014/06/assignment-5-and-6-and-discharging-i.html#comment-form
https://studioart3613aitchison.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/assignment-5-and-6-dyeing-and-discharging-colour/comment-page-1/#comment-47
https://jodiacadia.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/assignment-6-discharging-color/comment-page-1/#comment-55
REFERENCES
All About Hand Dyeing Q&A. (August 21, 2008). Retrieved from:
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyeblog/C1845207367/E20080819102444/index.html