Dye Painting with Salts -- the Easy Way

When I started on this adventure to create some dyed pieces using salts, I read all the conventional wisdom on doing this including the directions on Paula Birch's website and the Pro Chemical website. Having done this with acrylic paints very successfully, I was anxious to get it to work with the Procion MX dyes as I really like the hand of dyed fabric better than painted fabric. I use pearlized paints so I knew that would never happen with the MX dyes but thought there must be some way to duplicate the salt starburst effects.

The conventional wisdom is that you need to keep the dye reaction from happening too quickly (right on) and that you need to stretch the fabric so that it is taut when applying the dyes or paints and then salts. This seemed like far too much work to me. My earliest efforts consisted of using the mixed alkali recommended by ProChemical on their site, using a dye concentration of about 5% and direct painting onto crisply ironed scoured pfd Testfabric broadcloth which was placed on plastic on my table. I worked with fat quarters and tried all different colors.

With the above, I found that the salt effects did not happen (darn) and that you could see the marks caused by the plastic (where the fabric was soaked and kind of stuck to the plastic). Anyone familiar with painting with acrylics on fabrics laid on plastic will recognize this condition! No salt effects but I still didn't want to stretch the fabric (basic laziness here).

Next, I placed a second piece of fabric (muslin) also ironed under the piece I was applying the salt and dyes too. Ahah, this worked and I got my first salt trails when using any of the blues but not much with other colors. Still too much work -- who wants to iron an underpiece of fabric that you won't use. I don't even like ironing the piece I am using (before the dyes are applied). I then decided to try to use poly fleece which wouldn't require ironing and which I could throw willy-nilly into the washer and dryer. So this is how I evolved to where I was this summer.

In this process I have also tried using print paste on the fabric first to slow down the dyes. Interesting patterns but didn't do much of anything except to lighten the piece. Also found that I like the fabric dampened a bit before I applied the dyes as they ran more smoothly. Also liked the effects of a random application of dyes (sponges rather than brushes) which I noticed ProChem now also recommends. So my process is now:

1. Pre-scour a nice quality mercerized pfd broadcloth and cut to desired size.

2. Lay down a piece of poly fleece (interfacing or felt -- something reasonably thick). Make sure there are no fold lines (like off the bolt) on the fleece.

3. Lay the fabric to be dye painted on top of the fleece (I don't even iron that fabric anymore).

4. Lightly spray the whole piece of fabric with urea water (5 1/2 tbsps urea to 1 cup of water) especially if in a dry climate.

5. Mix up your bicarb/soda ash mixture (4:1 bicarb to soda ash).

6. Mix up your dyes. For turquoise and basic blue (the only red blue), I use 10%, intense blue 6%, mixing red 2%, and the yellows and strong orange all at 5%. I estimate about 1 total cup of dye per yard of fabric. This is my basic pallette but you will find your own but it must have the blues to work (my experience). So I might put 1/4 tsp of the bicarb/soda ash mix into four different cups and then put 1/4 cup of dye into these same cups for painting. Do this at the last minute.

7. Sponge on the lighter colors first and then sponge over with the blues and mixing red (which you might weaken even more). Do this very quickly and then put lots of salt in different sizes all over.

8. If and when the piece starts to dry out a bit, then and only then cover with plastic and let batch. The temp needs to be above 70 degrees and even warmer is preferable. The pieces need to be pretty moist to begin with so I may mist with a bit more urea water if it is a very dry day out. After about 3 hours, I actually will lay another piece of fleece on top of the drying piece and do an additional piece. I will keep layering as I only have one set of tables.

9. I am a coward so I have been nuking the pieces even after they have sat for 24 hours. I nuke them for about 4 minutes per yard checking on them and rearranging after the first 2 minutes. This would also allow you to do these in the dead of winter.

I have found this process to be pretty easy and okay for my lazy dyeing. The only time you really need to move is when you are putting on the dyes and the salts. Time is of the essence here!

More and More Rain and Some Dyeing!

Just a picture of some of Joe's pretty flowers!

These are pictures of about a 18 x 22 section of the piece. Each full sized piece is 2 yards.
This is another view of these pieces with different colors.

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This is the piece that got literally soaked through and through about an hour after it was starting to batch. It is quite a bit lighter than the other pieces but I was amazed to have any color at all.

Another fat quarter chunk. This was batched a good 24 hours and then nuked for 4 minutes to top it off. It looked almost totally black before washing.

Just another view.

Well, the weather has not been at all cooperative and life has been very exciting around here besides! I did finally manage to get some pictures that looked like the fabric. For some reason, my camera (which usually takes the best pictures) rebels when it comes to fabric and I get these strange wavy lines when using the flash. So I took these from a distance and zoomed and so they are not too bad.

These are the pieces I have done over the last couple of days. Generally, I have just put some of every color on them trying to get every combination and permutation. They have all sat for at least 24 hours and then were nuked before washing out. I only nuked the last two for a total of about four minutes altogether. They were still very wet this morning as was piece yesterday. We can't seem to lose the humidity although there hasn't been that much warmth -- just a consistent 80. Two more pieces today with the leftover dyes and then a hiatus until I return from QBL in Morrisville where I do a week of marbling (and hopefully blogging as well).

Why the heck does the magnolia tree in the front of our house have a load of flowers at the end of July??

Dyeing in the Rain Yet Again!

Well, I smartened up this time and reclaimed part of the garage for dyeing today! The piece that got rain soaked yesterday has happily come from the washing out and the dryer and it is okay! I can see that the part that was not soaked by the second rainfall was nice and dark. It is all spotty looking, but that is fine as I like texture. A good ironing will improve it immensely as I found out last night with my so-called "okay" pieces from yesterday. A brisk ironing was all it took to make them look more than acceptable!

Today I am again trying the pallette that I did on that piece with a little bit of an update. I spread sun yellow, golden yellow and a mix of strong orange and mixing red all over the piece leaving a few blank areas. I then took a 75%/25% mix of turquoise and intense blue and covered the whole piece, heavier in some areas than others. I have found that laying a foundation color and then putting color on top brings out the salt tracks. Have a feeling that the MX dyes just love to bond immediately with that fabric if there is no dye on it but when some of the more obvious dye sites are used up, then the colors have to wander a bit, helped by the salt.

One thing I did notice with the piece yesterday is that there are some very dark dots on it where I believe the large salt crystals were sitting enhancing the dye reaction. The rain did a very good job of dissolving almost all the salt that was on the piece, and believe me I use lots of salt. (I recycle the salt also by scraping it off the piece before I wash it out.)

The piece today is just not drying out at all!! Much too cool and damp I suppose so I will just let it be overnight and try to get some more done tomorrow. I am always anxious to see how one turns out before trying another one these days but it will take all summer at this rate. It has just been too rainy these past couple of weeks! It is amazing the effect of the urea if there is moisture in the air -- built in humidity check!

Dyeing in the Rain!

This is one corner of the piece of the multi-dyed one that I did yesterday. I was very pleased with how it turned out! The picture is a bit blurry and the other one I took even worse so it will just give a taste of what it looked like -- lots of large colored flowery images in it!



Well, I didn't intend to dye in the rain but of course the showers came just as I sat down to have some lunch. Some rain got on the piece before I covered it up with plastic so we may have something a little different. Unfortunately, the plastic had blown off so we had some premature washing out of the piece!! I don't know if there will be any color left on it at all! I may use the Afterfix to try to retrieve a little color as it looks pretty washed out right now. Darn.... Well, instead of the Afterfix, I threw the soggy wet piece into the microwave and nuked it for 8 minutes (2 yard piece). I then let it cool down and it is currently soaking. There is still some color but don't know how faded it is going to look. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain again.

Poor Lisa had planned to head to the beach in NC today to treat her visiting friends to a nice weekend as well as look at some beach houses. Wouldn't you know that an unplanned tropical storm would head exactly where she was going!! So she will get to see what beach houses do in the heavy rain!! I had just turned on the Weather Channel to check on our storm situation and saw the update on NC. It couldn't have been a minute later when she called to find out about the status of Hurricane Bertha (the original threat which wasn't). I had to break the news to her that a tropical storm had risen up overnight and was headed her way! Unfortunately, she was three quarters of the way there from Charlotte where she lives.


I have the three pieces from yesterday done and am moderately pleased with them. I think the blues one suffered from not letting it be long enough. It was the last one I did and the first I washed out. I didn't like the one with the purples at all so may just overdye the whole thing with yellow although I haven't decided yet. The first one I was very pleased with (the forerunner of which is on yesterday's blog). I like the serendipitous colors you get when applying some of all the primaries in different concentrations.


Today I am doing some experimenting. I made up sun yellow, golden yellow and strong orange and sponged strong diagonal stripes on the piece covering the whole thing. Then I applied turquoise mixed with a little intense blue all over the whole piece, lighter in some areas than others. I should get some different greens and browns with this. We shall see. I really was trying to see what the sun yellow and strong orange would do as I haven't used those yet.

This is the piece when I first applied the dyes before the rains came!

You can see that the salts were beginning to work their magic.

This is what I do with the leftover dyes from a day's dyeing. This was the leftovers from last week's dyeing adventures. I had hit upon a real gold mine in KMart with these tshirts which are women's and I swear are mercerized, they take the dye so well! I have bought pfd tshirts that didn't get this rich color from week old dyes yet! This was basically some leftover turquoise and intense blue, some mixing red and then a small amount of golden yellow that I inserted in some places that looked a little white!
This is the purple and blue piece from yesterday. Looks a little splotchy to me but it isn't ironed yet.

This is the blue piece which is mostly turquoise and some intense blue. I don't think it is as rich as it could be.

High Temps = Painting with Salts Again

This is the beginning picture of what the first piece today looked like. It dried very dark but is washing out quite a bit now. We shall see tomorrow what the pieces look like! Double click on any of the photos to see them closer!

Another really hot day out there today and the sweat was pouring off my forehead as I applied dyes and salts to a 2 yard piece of fabric out in the driveway!.

This time, I kept the mixing red and golden yellow at 5% but mixed the turquoise at 10% and the intense blue at 6%. I also mixed up a batch of grape at 10% as I haven't tried that yet. I decreased the concentration of the mixing red to about 4%. Usually about two cups of dye gets applied to a 2 yard piece. Of course first I spray it all over with urea water as it is easier to apply the dyes when the surface is a little damp.

The first piece was golden yellow on first and then sponged with turquoise and mixing red. I let it get close to dry and then nuked it for about four minutes and I am letting it sit out on the line to get dry. It is quite a humid day and there is probably enough moisture to keep things going a bit although the quick microwave will probably be enough heat to get it going.

The second piece was grape and turquoise and mixing red. There was quite a bit of movement. The grape was a very high concentration but still doesn't seem to have that much color to me.

The third piece was just intense blue and turquoise. The intriguing part was that there was very interesting movement of the intense blue even before I put on the turquoise and salt. It looked like feathery fireworks. I may just do a piece like that to see how it dries.

Figured six yards was enough for today! I have covered up the second one with black plastic and then did the third piece right on top. I will nuke them both before I rinse them out!

It is very obvious to me at this point that the higher the concentration of dye, the more effect you get so I won't be shy about using my "Ann Johnston" concentrations of dyes (10-12%) which gives you the beautiful bright colors!

The next three are the absolutely stunning hibiscus that we have blooming in our front yard. There are tons of new flowers each day in salmon and red/orange. We got these at KMart and didn't see any flowers for the first month. They love this hot weather!

Followup to Yesterday's Salt Dye

Well, just had to post a couple of pictures of my attempt yesterday and you can see the results today. I am extremely pleased and ratcheting up the dyes seems to work the way I want. Now I must say that it was quite chilly last night so I covered it up with plastic to keep it moist. It is amazing that it was almost dry yesterday afternoon but an evening under plastic and it was moister by morning. I then took it and dumped it into the microwave for a few minutes (it is a two yard piece) to make sure that the dyes had enough time and heat to work. It seemed to work just fine as most of the work had been done so no transfer and it was only damp.

So here they are. They are a little fuzzy as I was taking pictures indoors with no flash. I don't like to take closeups with the flash on as it does weird things and bleaches all the color out and then I have to manipulate the images.

Again, I used first golden yellow and then sponged on intense blue and turquoise. I followed this up with mixing red. I tried to cover every white space. I love it when the salt pulls all the color away and leaves white though! I am very pleased with these overall. The red never migrates but if you put enough blue on, it kind of moves the red along with it occasionally. Double click on these and you can see the closeups.

Trying to Squeeze One Last Day Before the Cool Weather Returns!

This is the finished sponge piece from yesterday. The other piece was nice as well but my picture was weird so I didn't post it. The color is definitely better in this one so will ratchet the dye concentrations up next time I am playing.

Well, I was very pleased with yesterday's efforts and will go with an even higher concentration next time (after my guest leaves and the hot muggy weather returns). I made up a little more of some dyes today and took a chance to get something going before it rained. Well, it started raining so in came the tables with their cargo. It is pretty dark as I used three primaries in sequence. First I sponged golden yellow over the whole piece (after dampening with a spray of urea water), then intense blue and turquoise and then some mixing red.

The fabric that has been used in all of these salt experiments is either the high count broadcloth from Testfabrics or the Egyptian cotton (also a nice high threadcount broadcloth) from Joanns. I rarely use anything but a nice pfd Pimatex or high thread count mercerized cotton for direct dyeing of which this salt dyeing is a subset. It might be interesting to try something else which I will do one of these days. I try to use the highest quality cotton I can when doing these labor intensive direct dyeing activities.

We shall see how it all turns out!

This is how it looks now. The white spots are the salts. I used all different sizes today whereas yesterday they were more uniform in size.



This is a closeup of the piece today where you can see some movement in the lighter areas. Much of this piece is very dark so don't know whether anything is happening or not and probably won't know until it dries out. It is sitting in the sun right now still wet but it is supposed to cool overnight.

A Scorcher Out There..

So what better day than this to do some more dyeing. I got expelled from the garage so am making do with the driveway and hoping that the expected showers don't come until later.

This time I used more concentrated dyes to see if I like the results better (or even if I get results). I made up some Intense Blue, Navy, turquoise and golden yellow in about a 5% solution instead of the usual 3%. I am going to keep trying to increase the intensity to see where the salt effects stop (if they do). So far, they are going like gangbusters!! I might add that the humidity is about 80% and the temp is close to 90. At this point, they are acting like the paints do -- the colors move as parts of the piece start to dry out a bit. Of course with dyes I can't let them get completely dry. I also created some ridges as I observed that where I got the greatest movement with the last pieces was next to the edge where it hung over the table a bit. So I will create a little movement. I would like to accordion fold the whole piece and may do that the next time around.

This is the overall look of the piece while it has just been painted. Even in ten minutes the salt had caused movement.
This is a closeup which shoes the tracks beginning. I have no idea why I find this so fascinating. Now there are some more things I would like to get done with my dyeing -- effects that are easy with acrylics.

Piece number 2 for the afternoon is still using the more intense dyes (and I may ratchet it up even more tomorrow) and I used sponge style. First I sponged on golden yellow and then I sponged on some green made with the golden and intense blue and then some turqouise and then intense blue over the turquoise.




The next couple of pictures are slices of the sponged dyed pieces. The colors didn't move as fast and there are places where there is a lot of dye on these pieces. I was afraid when I didn't see movement in ten minutes like the other that all was lost. It just took a little more time!




My process is to let one piece get a bit dryer, cover with plastic and then layer another piece of fleece and then another piece. This keeps them the prerequisite moist until I am ready to rinse. Haven't yet decided whether to remove the salt before I do that. So many options and so little summer! I had to roll up the pieces in their fleece and move them inside as we are expecting rain which would be okay but didn't want the wind to blow them down the street!

I have a guest coming this weekend but looks like she will find out why her daughter in law (my youngest) is such a bad housekeeper. Who wants to clean when there is dyeing and color to be done! It's safe to eat in my kitchen and the bathrooms and sheets will be clean! QBL is coming up at the end of the month as well and I will be doing 5 days of marbling with Elin Noble! I really look forward to a week of just playing this way. I have two boxes of paints to take with me with which to experiment!

The Rescue from Mediocrity -- Salt Dyes Again!

Well, my terminally ugly piece has new life as a beautiful deep navy with green and brown undertones -- I am very pleased!

Well, I posed a question on Dyerslist about my mix of soda ash and bicarbonate that I was using for my salt dyes. This is a mixture of 4 parts sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and 1 part soda ash. My mixture was a year old and I suspected that was why I was getting such pale results. Indeed, someone wrote me that they had checked with ProChem on this question and said that sodium bicarb loses its potency in much less time than I had it. I really liked the last blues pieces I did today and wanted to rescue it from mediocrity (the previous night's blue piece) so I decided to apply Afterfix. I have mentioned this before as a way of activating the dyes on a piece that you forgot to presoak in soda ash. I figured if it was indeed the old bicarb, then this technique would save the piece. If it was the week- old dyes, then there was no hope! Well, it was the bicarb as the Afterfix is washed out and the piece is bright and remains pretty much the same as it was before washing!

It was recommended that you not use Afterfix on big pieces but I am not sure why that would be. If you use a paintbrush, it does take time to apply it (it is about the thickness of heavy cream and sticky). However, I decided to just use a paint roller. It took about a cup per yard and was very fast to apply. I may try some other things using this technique from now on.

The way you would use it would be to (1) paint your dyes all over your piece, (2) let it dry , then (3) apply the Afterfix and (4) after one hour, you immediately remove the Afterfix as you don't want it to dry on the fabric and then (5) wash out the fabric. It works like a charm but the secret is using that paint roller (one of those 3 or 4 inch ones that you use to paint in corners or near your molding).

I figure I can do 16 yards with a gallon (which is what I have). I bought mine from Dharma but I know ProChem carries a different version as well. Well, doing the math, it costs about $1.25/yard to use this stuff so that is probably why the recommendation for limited use. Soda ash is certainly a LOT cheaper!! But if you have to rescue a piece, it is well worth the cost!

More on the Salt Dyes -- What Not to Do

My favorite begonias are going crazy in the planter on the front steps. I just loved this pinky/orange/yellow one.


Well, the night last night was super humid and that combined with some dyes that I think were over the hill combined to make a nice piece really ugly! The final words are not in but it didn't look too good this morning when I went out to the garage. It was soaking wet, the humidity had been so high which of course caused the dyes to migrate even more than I wanted and made the trails disappear and just become lighter smudges of mud. Hopefully, the trails were well established and that the further migration won't obliterate them completely.

Well, after washing it didn't turn out super ugly as some of the trails returned and if I split it into fat quarters, it will be interesting. I think that a little less humidity and more heat would work better.


So back to some safe colors today -- the blues and blues only! No more of those three primaries even though it looked pretty good to begin with. I think the humidty was just too high and there needs to be some drying for this process to work properly.

Now my other piece that I was trying to make for a quilting buddy is about as ugly as you can possibly get so my cure-all for that is to just overdye with blue! Something will come out of it!! I suspect that I am not going to be able to meet her requirements! I will make one more try with a smaller piece today and see what happens. The color she wants is a muddy very pale beige which then becomes more yellow as you move to the top of the cloth (and even paler). My attempt using the colors that worked in the gradation produced the ugliest color of green mud you have ever seen!

Well, true to my word, I only did blues for this first piece today, trying out all the blues I have!! So it is turquoise, then intense blue, basic blue and finally deep navy (the pure navy). I didn't use the mixing blue as I know that works but had no idea whether the navy or intense blue works. Twenty minutes have passed and already some deep trails in the intense blue so looks like that will be a wonderful choice as well. We shall see. Of course now dear husband is whining about blocking the garage door with my tables. The weather has not been cooperative though so I haven't been able to depend on the weather outside the garage all week and I had made up the dyes on Monday. I know they wouldn't last with any strength at all much longer. Tomorrow will be the last of this batch I think.

The green mud piece has now been unceremoniously dumped into navy blue and mixing blue where it will stay until it behaves better! I have learned the hard way not to use basic blue and intense blue as my overdye as intense blue doesn't discharge at all and basic blue discharges to an ugly beige that is not at all interesting.

This is one area of the piece I did yesterday. Looks very faded to me but in small doses, it was acceptable.


This is a second area. I have no way of photographing the whole piece outside yet but looks better in small doses anyway.



This is the newest piece on the two tables. This was taken about 10minutes after I put the last dye on. It is turquoise on the edges, going to intense blue and then basic blue with navy in the middle. I know that basic blue and turquoise don't go together well without something splitting them as turquoise is a very green blue and basic blue is the only red blue of the Procion MX dyes.



This is a closeup where you can see the salt has already started acting. I just swept up the rest of the salt as there was enough movement for me so now I will let it dry which hopefully it will do. It is still pretty muggy out but the blues almost always turn out well.

This shows the trails already starting pretty well. Double click to see it bigger!

Dyeing with Salts -- First of the Summer!

This is a two yard piece of fabric stretched out over two six foot long tables. There is another piece underneath and is separated from this one by a piece of fleece and some plastic. You really need to double click on these pictures to see the salt trails.


Well, I mixed up quite a bit of a number of dyes earlier this week awaiting a nice warm humid day for doing some direct dyeing outside. It is time to get back to dyeing with salt patterning again. I spent the better part of the summer two years ago working on this technique to get the best effects on fabrics with the least amount of work!!

I started by using the directions from ProChem's web site on how to work with salts. Over the years, I have collected every size of salt crystal!! I have regular salt, kosher salt, sea salt, pretzel salt and ice cream salt. All have different sized pieces of salt and will act differently on the fabric.

What I found out also is that (of course as in all dyeing), the primaries all act differently and some don't work at all. Add into that the dye concentrations, it can be rather challenging. My goal I guess was to try to have patterning like you have on the nicer commercial batiks from Hoffman or Tonga -- now why I want to spend time creating fabric that I can purchase for $6 or $7/yard is a bit mystifying -- I guess I just want to know "how did they do that". I did know that they stretch theirs and most directions have you stretch the fabric out as well on stretcher bars. Being also a very lazy dyer, this would not do for me!!

This is one of those techniques that is sooo easy with fabric paints. With fabric paints, you just make sure your surface is nice and damp and then just throw some salt on and voila in thirty minutes, you have all sorts of movement of the paints with little trails to (or from) the grains of salt. Not quite that easy with the dyes!!

The key in the directions is the direct dyeing technique that you use. Instead of pretreating your fabric with soda ash, you mix a combination of 4 parts baking soda to 1 part soda ash and use one tsp of this mixture per cup of dye. Of course you have to move quickly, as the soda ash will immediately start activating the dyes so you don't want to make up too much dye in this manner at a time (I tend to work in 1/4 cup sizes).

I start with dry fabric (usually I cut off the selvedges as well) that is fairly smooth. I then spray it rather vigorously with urea water -- not enough to get it really wet, but damp enough that you don't have trouble painting on the dyes. I use one of those really wide Japanese brushes which hold tons of dye in them and paint as fast as I can. I try to do 2+ yards at a time and will apply the salt as I go along. I also occasionally use sea sponges to apply the color. I make sure the whole area is painted with something.

After the color is applied and some grains of salt randomly applied, it is time to wait and let the piece get at least partially dry. It sometimes takes a long time to see the effects, sometimes it is very fast. I don't let it dry out completely and after about 3 hours will cover it with plastic and let it sit for at least 8 hours (at least 70 degrees or warmer) and preferably overnight. I don't have the science down completely yet but think I do best when I have concentrations of dye that are no greater than 3% (3 gms of dye - 1/2 tsp - in one cup of urea water per yard of fabric). I allow about one cup of dyes at 3% per yard of fabric so proportion accordingly the colors I have. This is not exact obviously! My biggest trick was to always place my fabric on either another piece of fabric or batting. I have started using poly fleece for this. It allows excess dyes to move down rather than fill in the areas that the salts have made white. Hope this makes sense. If you want to work, you can stretch out the fabric or some sort of stretcher bar and that works also (and probably better but I have gotten some great results with my lazy way).

I get really good results anytime I use turquoise or basic blue or any color using one of those two colors. I get okay results with golden yellow and mixing blue. If I apply mixing red on top of other colors, it seems to work okay as well. I am sure fuchsia will never work (except maybe added on top of another dye later on). There are a number of colors I have had no success with including grape and boysenberry. I suspect intense blue won't work well either. Sometimes you just get dark spots where the salt was and no patterns. Turquoise will truly give you a surface where there are lengthy, thick trails all over!!


The next three pictures are closeups from the piece above. They are not dry yet but have been left to sit for about five hours so far. Hopefully there is enough fixative in the dyes so that I get some nice color from these.
I used first a coat of golden yellow and then put on mixing red in places on top of that and then finished off with some basic blue (MX-R) (all ProChem names). Double click to see closer up and you can see the salt trails.