Saturday and Some Dyeing Information! No Pictures!

Well, will probably post progress on my piece from class yesterday tomorrow but thought I would put some dyeing information up on the blog today as questions appear periodically on many of the lists about what dyes to buy etc. so here goes. The list has first the Procion official name, then the ProChem number(www.Prochemical.com), ProChem name, Dharma Number (www.Dharmatrading.com) and then Dharma name and then the color it discharges to. A double dash means that Dharma doesn't currently carry that color. A lot of this information was from Paula Birch's web site which is an excellent resource for any dyer. I have added some of my own "stuff" as I was always getting questions in my classes.
Pure Colors
Yellow MX-4G, 114 ,Lemon Yellow ,- - Paler yellow
Yellow MX-8G, 108 ,Sun Yellow, #1 ,Lemon ,Yellow Pale yellow or white
Yellow MX-3R, 104 ,Golden Yellow, #4, Deep Yellow ,Doesn't Discharge
Yellow MX-GR, 112 ,Tangerine, #3 ,Golden Yellow, Darker yellow
Orange MX-2R, 202 ,Strong Orange, #6, Deep Orange, Pale yellow
Red MX-5B, 305 ,Mixing Red, #12, Light Red, Ocre or white
Red MX-8B, 308 ,Fushsia, #13, Fushsia ,Red, Ocre or yellow
Violet MX-BR, 802, Boysenberry ,- - White
Violet MX-GN, 801, Grape ,- - White
Blue MX-R, 400 ,Basic Blue, #26 ,Sky Blue ,Blue/gray
Blue MX-2G, 402C, Mixing Blue #22, Cobalt Blue, Soft pink or white
Blue MX-G, 406 ,Intense Blue #23, Cerulean Blue, Doesn't Discharge
Blue MX-4GD, 414, Navy Blue, -, - , White
Turquoise MX-G, 410, Turquoise, #25, Turquoise, Pale Turquoise

Mixed Dyes
210 Apricot pale yellow
Blue MX-G 404 Bright Blue doesn't discharge
MX-CWA 608 Black grey

700N Leaf Green
711 Brightest Green
Red MX-GBA 312 Strongest Red #10A Chinese Red Yellow
310N Basic Red
601 Mixing Grey grey or white
810 Violet-Blue pale pink or white


My recommendations for a beginning dyer who wants to get started with MX dyes is the following:


MX3R - Golden Yellow -- warm earthy yellow that makes great greens and reds
MX5B - Mixing Red (ProChem) -- this mixes well with other dyes in low water immersion although not as bright as fuchsia
MX8B - Fuchsia -- a bright red which doesn't play well in lwi but is a great color for direct application or vat dyeing
MX2G - Mixing Blue(ProChem name) - a dull blue that mixes well with other dyes and makes great greens and decent purples
MXG - Intense Blue(ProChem name) - a bright blue
MXG Turquoise - a very bright color but one that does require a little heat to move it along. Takes the longest to attach to fibers but a great mixing color for bright greens.

Then I would add:

MXR - Sky or Basic Blue which is a weak blue and takes a bit longer to bond but is beautiful for skies and mixing with reds for purples
MX8G - Sun or Lemon yellow depending upon where you buy it -- bright, bright yellow which mixes well with turquoise and fuchsia
MX2R - Strong Orange which is great with Mixing Blue or Navy to make wonderful rich browns. Also good for mixing with fuchsia to make a good strong red.
MX4GD or Navy Blue - I don't believe Dharma has this but it is a much clearer dark blue than the Mixing Blue and great for making greens and browns when added with strong orange.
MXCWA - Black which tends to the bluish side. I generally make my own neutrals but this is good for mixing to darken things up a bit but it will tend to make it a bit muddy.

The Sun Yellow in the second bunch is a real candidate for the must haves if you like really bright colors. I used to buy twice as much of this as any other color (and I usually buy more yellow than the others as it takes so much more to "move" the reds and blues which are very strong colors) but lately I have found I preferred the mixed colors I have made with Golden Yellow. A good rule of thumb is to use the cheaper pure colors to mix your colors, ie use the golden yellow with red to make orange rather than bright yellow. The golden yellow tends already to the red side. Same goes for blues. All the blues except for Basic Blue (ProChem name) tend toward green and therefore are a smarter move for mixing greens. Basic Blue tends to mix better with red. It takes more and more money to try to make a "purer" color (one which does not tend to one direction or the other as color is really a continuum, not a distinct point). However, it gets even more complicated as some of the colors are "clearer" than others and will always give you a brighter color even if you break the above rule of thumb!! The brightest of the MX pure colors are Turquoise, Sun Yellow and Fuchsia. I believe their pure Navy is also quite "bright". However, some of us have a rather heavy hand with our dye powders and tend to make some pretty concentrated colors. Elin Noble suggested that most of the colors are best when used at about 3% -- they are automatically brighter.

There is just so much to learn about these dyes. A lot of the information out there is opinion and the same goes for what I post.

There are several people out there in cyberland and the real world whose opinions I value and trust -- Doug Wilson and Paula Birch(www.pbirch.net) who regularly post to Dyerslist (a must do digest for anyone who is serious about dyeing), Elin Noble(www.elinnoble.com) -- a world class dyer who combines the art with the science and never hesitates to say she doesn't know if she doesn't, and Ann Johnson(www.annjohnston.net) who is the pioneer of low water immersion dyeing and who took direct dyeing to whole new levels.