Large salt crystals can have the same interesting effects on a finely woven cotton or rayon that they have on silk, but it will not work unless you use the right sort of dye or paint, and enough tension.
The way that salt works is by osmotically 'sucking' liquid toward it. Any
unfixed wet dye or fabric paint will be pulled toward the dot of salt. You must first
stretch your fabric or garment so that it is taut, for good effects; fabric that is puddled loosely will not allow clear streaks to appear. Salt effects will not work with dye or paint that strikes the fabric very quickly, before the salt can pull the color around on the fabric.
To stretch your fabric or your garment, you can pin it tautly to a water-resistant board, or you can use a large stretcher frame, larger then your garment, and pull the edges tight with plastic clothes pins attached to rubber bands looped over the frame. Sometimes placing it over a cookie sheet will work, depending on the size of the garment and the size of the baking sheet. (Avoid exposing aluminum to soda ash.)
You will generally see best results for salt when pigment 'dyeing', that is, using
fabric paint instead of dye. Any transparent fabric paint should work well. Try Setacolor, Jacquard Textile Colors, ProFab textile paint from ProChem, or Jacquard Dye-na-flow. Any silk paint that also works on cotton can be used for this purpose. Silk dyes usually will not, since acid dyes do not work on cotton.
Salt effects usually fail with Procion MX dye because some of the dye reacts almost immediately upon hitting the fabric. If you want to get salt effects with Procion MX dye, you need to delay the dye reaction. To do this, do not presoak in soda ash; instead, wait until the dye has dried on the fabric, before you fix the dye. One way to do this is to paint the dried dyed fabric with sodium silicate solution; another is to paint it with a soda ash solution that is saturated with salt (to reduce dye solubility). Sodium silicate is sold by many dye suppliers, under many names: it is sold as Fix LHF by PRO Chemical & Dye, as AfterFix by Dharma Trading Company, as Drimafix by Batik Oetoro, and as Tobafix by Tobasign Dyes.
Jacquard, of course, is not the only company that sells large crystals of salt. Different sizes of salt crystals will give different effects. Most forms of salt are very inexpensive, only a few cents per pound. Try koshering salt, the salt sold for ice cream making, salt sold for de-icing sidewalks, or the salt sold for water softeners.
Paula
