Procion dyes are sold in powdered form. Mix them with water to use.
Colors are transparent. If you are dyeing something which is not white your final color will be influenced by the color underneath. Let us just say that you have a t-shirt you LOVE. Your only problem with it is the color. For argument's sake let's just say it is a bright yellow. You buy some turquoise blue dye because it reminds you of your honeymoon in the South Pacific. Ok, so here's the problem... the turquoise blue dye will be altered by the yellow of the shirt. Ok class, yellow + blue= what? That's right. Yellow + blue = Green So if you dye a yellow shirt with blue, you will end up with a green shirt. Nice if that is what you want. Not so nice if you expect blue! Keep this in mind when you are choosing colors!
About mixing colors-- by mixing the colors we sell, you can acheive any color you wish (with a bit of work) The easiest (and least scientific way) to mix colors is to mix the dry powder. Let's just say you want a bright purple curtain panel. Your gut says that you want more blue in your purple than red. Let's say you decide you need the equivalent of 3 tsps of dye. You could mix 2 tsps of blue with 1 tsp of red. So lets just say you dye your curtain panel with a solution of 2 parts blue to 1 part red. You dry the curtain panel and after lots of thought (and consulation with your significant other) decide that it is just a bit too bright and red for your taste. You can overdye it with a slightly darker blue (perhaps the cobalt) blue. This will tone down the color and overpower the red a bit.
you are going to have a big old party complete with tie-dyeing, and you want to know how to maintain some sense of order in the midst of all of the excitement
Here are our hints
Have two stations. The first would be for folding the shirts after they are pulled out of the soda ash solution. The second would be for applying the dye. This way, you don't get dye on the shirts until you are ready.
As long as you are going to have everyone dye within a couple of hours (I would say less that 8) you can mix up large amounts of dye ahead of time and decant it as needed. Good old gallon milk containers would work well.
Don't fill the bottles up all the way. If there is dye on the table it will get used, whether it is needed or not.
If you have time, make some samples up ahead of time. Tie dyeing is great, but there is an element of delayed gratification. Everyone has to resist opening their shirts (or whatever you are dyeing) right away. Having some bright examples hanging around might distract them from the fact that they can't see their work of art right away.
I cannot stress how important your color choices are. The primary colors work wonderfully-- lemon, turquoise and fuchsia. If you want to add a color, deep purple or one of the greens is a good option. If this is a camp, you may want to do jungle colors (greens with a bit of brown) or ocean colors (blues and greens). It is difficult to get a good black when using this process, so our suggestion is to avoid black.
This is a great project for all ages and any number of people. Not only does it give them something to do, but they will remember the event when they open up their project after they have gone home.
One more thing.... plan ahead. We are pretty good about keeping things in stock, but sometimes we run out and have to replenish our stock. And if you aren't local, we have to mail the stuff to you.
So you have decided you want to do the project, but you aren't sure how much dye you need. How about if we give you some guidelines.
We are going to start small and get bigger. Also, we are going to assume you are dyeing shirts. If you are dyeing something else, make a guesstimate of how many shirts it is equal to.
One more thing-- we figure in a bit of wiggle room to cover any mistakes, spills, second thoughts.... in the end, you will be much happier if you have a bit of dye left over than if you can't finish that last shirt because you ran out.
15 shirts- The good old original tie dye kit is perfect. It comes with premeasured bottles of the primary colors with a bonus bottle for you to mix your own custom color. The nice thing about the kit is that it is all inclusive-- rubber bands, gloves, soda ash and instructions.($19.99)
30 shirts- This is when you get to choose your ingredients. If you buy 3 of the 2/3oz jars of dye, 1 lb of soda ash and 2 lbs of urea would do. (around $21.00)
Figure that you can get about 10 shirts out of one 2/3oz bottle. You can get about 12 shirts worth of urea out of a pound. (confession time-- of all the components, urea is the least important. It does definately help produce brighter colors, since it retains the moisture for a longer time. But if you have to skimp on something, let the urea be that thing. You will still get good results.)
When you are tired of adding small bottles, you can move up to the big 8oz bottles. If you get 3-8oz containers, you can dye between 260 and 290 shirts (I bet you could even get over 300 if you were careful) For that size group, we would suggest 10lbs of soda ash and 15lbs of urea.
