Monday, January 21, 2008

The Basic Steps


Here are the most basic step by step instructions for resist dyeing ever. I’m not even gonna give them numbers because it is important to understand how flexible these steps are.
Prescour fiber
Create dye solution
Create resist patterns
Activate dye
Apply activated dye solution to the fiber and allow chemical reaction to occur
Remove excess dye solution from fiber

The trick is that these basic steps can be rearranged, repeated and combined to create the effects you want. Other elements can be added (thickening agents, wax, repeating dye baths and so on) as long as the basic requirements are met it will work. Deciding how to manage this process can be an important element in creating the effects you want. In my next posts I will cover the 3 Dyeing Methods almost all of my projects use. Each of these methods use the same steps in as I listed above in a slightly different order
Please note I’m not going to give detailed instructions for these methods just an outline. I will provide some links to places to find some more detailed instructions and more good stuff a bit later.

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