Low Water Immersion (LWI)

[Kathy]

Low Water Immersion Dyeing…
Well, that pretty much describes it; you’re using a low water to fabric ratio to dye.

But seriously, it is a process that leads to a varied amount of outcomes. It can be used with single colors or multiple colors. You can use it to get a mottled/variegated effect or solid shading.

As with most dye processes, everybody has their own way to do things. So the following is my process, which has been gleaned from a variety of resources including PBurch.net and Prochemical.com.

You want to begin with a container that your item will fit nicely scrunched into. As for the item itself I prefer to dampen it before I cram it into the container, others prefer the effects of starting with dry fabric. Experiment to see what suits you.

For single color dyeing, I use 1 tsp. of dye powder/cup of water. I usually mix my dye up in a mason jar, shaking it pretty good for a minute or two to get the dye well blended and dissolved in the water. When I am going to use 2 colors my measurements are ½ tsp dye to ½ cup water per color.

You might be asking…”Well, how much fabric do you use per cup of dye solution?”
Quite honestly(and some dyers may cringe at this) my primary criteria is whether or not my final dye bath, which includes the soda ash solution, will leave my fabric mostly submerged. I like to have the level of liquid be level or just above the level of the fabric in the container. Some dyers are more precise about the amount of dye based on the weight of fabric. If you would like to be more precise than I am Prochemical’s LWI instructions are a good place to start.

When my dye(s) is mixed and my item is crammed to my liking in its container, I pour the dye solution over my fabric. I may or may not choose to manipulate (by hand, with a spoon or by shaking the container) my item to encourage the dye to migrate to certain areas. The more manipulation you do to your fabric during the process the more blended and less mottled/variegated your end dye results will be.

If you are dyeing with more then one color, I suggest pouring on the lighter color first then the darker. Sometimes I mix it up; I’ll pour on half the light color then half the darker then the light color again, topping it off with the darker. Just one of my many quirks!

After my dye has been poured on and my fabric has been manipulated or not to my satisfaction, I let this sit for about 20 minutes or until I remember! I then pour a solution of 1 ½ tsp soda ash to 1 cup water over my concoction of fabric and dye. Just to note I use 1 cup of this soda ash solution per cup of dye solution.

I let all this sit to react for atleast 4 hours.

 

[tiedyejudy]

Hi, Kathy.  Thanks for your discussion on LWI.  I will admit that I have had dismal results on my attempts to do this process.  I have a couple of questions for you:  
    For an adult T-shirt, what kind of container do you usually use?  bucket?  butter tub?  mason jar?  
    When you mix the soda ash, are you disolving it in hot water?  If so, do you do that ahead of time and let it cool, or is it still hot when you add it to the dyed item?
   
Thanks, girl!  BTW, did you know it's SNOWING  up here?   YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Judy

[Kathy]

Thanks, girl!  BTW, did you know it's SNOWING  up here?   YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

First things first, Mt Lemmon is closed for snow and its windy and cold here in the valley(last sat. it was in the 80's   ) My ideal would be for the 70' weather to return and the snow to stay on the mt.!

Hi, Kathy.  Thanks for your discussion on LWI.  I will admit that I have had dismal results on my attempts to do this process.  I have a couple of questions for you:  
    For an adult T-shirt, what kind of container do you usually use?  bucket?  butter tub?  mason jar?  
    When you mix the soda ash, are you disolving it in hot water?  If so, do you do that ahead of time and let it cool, or is it still hot when you add it to the dyed item?

For an adult sized t-shirt I would use a gallon bucket. I usually stock up on mine at ACE hardware during $-days You will have a bit of extra room so their won't be an issue with overflow, but the shirt should fit nicely scrunched at the bottom.

A small sized adult t might do well in a 32 oz yogurt container as wouldkids t's. I have also gotten 32 oz(roughly) sized tupperware type tubs at the dollar store that have lids. These are helpful to me b/c the are clear and I like to *see* what is going on as far as where the dye is.

As far as soda ash goes, I dissolve it in tepid water. I tried this after a discussion on Michaels old forum, and found that the soda ash dissolved much easier in tepid water than in hot water. I still add the water to the soda ash as oppossed to soda ash to water. I think the agitation of pouring the water over the soda ash promotes it dissolving, though this may not be scientifically sound

I still mix it ahead of time so that when it is time to add it, I just pour it in

Great questions Judy! Thanks!

Kathy

[LiveFreeorDye]

I have had good results putting one color in the container under the shirt, cramming the shirt in ( I had tested the fit of the shirt(s) in the container before adding any dye), then putting the additional color or colors on top of the shirt.

take it easy
Sue

[tiedyejudy]

Good idea, Sue.  Now I have a question for you:  Kathy dampens her shirt before applying the dyes.  Do you start off with your shirt damp or dry?

Judy

[Kathy]

Oh...forgot that I also wanted to add that I use LWI as opposed to vat dyeing to do my solid color silks with little to no mottling. I decided to do this awhile ago for a couple of reasons...
1-its nice to use less water, especially since I live in the desert(yesterday was the first significant rain we've had in more than 100 days...yikes!)
2-less dye and other required auxiliary chemicals(NO SALT!)
3-less work for me and no need to remember to stir every so often.

My process is really not too different than the process in my first post. B/C I am using lightweight silk I can do atleast 2 silks/cup of dye. I do have  lower fabric to dye solution ratio b/c I am not going for a mottled/scrunched effect, and want my silks o have a little more wiggle room than normal.

 I also manipulate my silks alot more at the beginning of the process(before adding soda ash) and more often during the rest of the process. I don't have a set amount of times or intervals that I manipulate the silks, just when the spirit moves me to do so When I manipulate the silks I usually either reach in with gloved hands and move, untangle, and squeeze. If I am doing this in a mason jar(just one or two silks) I manipulate by hand and by shaking the jar.

Anyways...just another useful way to LWI.

Kathy

[LiveFreeorDye]

.

Kathy dampens her shirt before applying the dyes. Do you start off with your shirt damp or dry?

I am replying here instead of the other thread, because this is where the question was asked. In my LWI, my shirts were damp, just out of the spin cycle of the washer following scouring

I also like to fill so that the liquid level is about level with the top of the fabric, and sometimes pour some plain water in between colors and at the end.

I have a plastic tub about 10" x 14", and I crammed in 2 camisoles, a mens T and some scrunchies. I have another container that used to hold sidewalk chalk; it's about 6" x 9", and I did a kids tank top and a camisole in it. The garments were very tightly crammed in. I did a little poking at it, but not much.

take it easy
Sue

[Taika-Kim]

Hmm, it's funny how you do things differently when you have no instructions and nobody to learn from

I've been dyeing since 1998, and this is my version:

I dye my textiles in a bucket with enough water to let the cloth float there quite freely.

This way I must do only one colour at a time, so this is slow. But I suppose the effect is a bit different too from LWI.

I've found out that if the cloth is dry, the colours seep into almost all of the fabric, despite the ties. Of course there's variation in the depth of the colour.
The wetter the cloth is, the more the dye stays to the exposed parts of the fabric. Playing around with this can get some nice effects.

I've never bothered for complex folds and sharp designs, I like the more organic and random results this way of working gives me... And also because the colours I use are a bit hard to apply straight to the fabric. I always get muuuch better results in a vat....

[steve]

I've never bothered for complex folds and sharp designs, I like the more organic and random results this way of working gives me... And also because the colours I use are a bit hard to apply straight to the fabric. I always get muuuch better results in a vat....

Sounds interesting! Could you post some pictures of the results you are getting with your techniques? We'd love to see what you are doing!

Welcome to the forum!

Steve

[Jaja]

Glad to meet other european since we have slightly different conditions.

I'd like to see some pictures too - it says more that 10,000 words.

Here are two of my LWI - polychromatic vs. monochromatic

[pburch]

I dye my textiles in a bucket with enough water to let the cloth float there quite freely.

This way I must do only one colour at a time, so this is slow. But I suppose the effect is a bit different too from LWI.

This sounds like it might be described as MWI - medium water-to-goods ratio, not as low as in LWI, nor as high as in regular immersion dyeing. (Like everyone else I'd like to see some pictures!)

Paula

[Taika-Kim]

Ok, here comes some late experiments made in medium water style:

It was hard taking photographs of many of these since they're huge...


About 160x220cm or something like that. I think it's blue on yellow, I just threw the fabric in the bucket, no ties, sewing or anything. Total randomness & quite mellow overall feeling. It's the "bag" sheet for the quilt in my bed. (hmm sorry I don't know the words in English maybe...Never needed to use these before<g>)


I think this is just purple (red+blue, not pure...) + bleach. It's a sheet, also 160x220 I think. This together with the previous green one are my favourite sheets


Blue on... Hmm orange & green? Silk screening with discharge paste.


An old shirt as an example... It's at least 3 years old I think and has been in heavy use. Colors are very washed out compared to the original state. This was made using the Furia levafix colours.


A new T, only washed maybe one or two times. Blue on orange & yellow. Very random, very chaotic, very nice


Several yellow/red/orange/discharge runs to get just the right shades. This is... Hmm 200x300cm or something, it has also blue/green strips on the sides that didn't fit in the picture. This is the day cover for my bed. So much warmth, great to lie on and dream about


Living room drapes. Managed to avoid the typical tie-dye look rather well, has nice smooth gradients. Backlit here so not the colours don't show so well :/


Another drapes, this time out of thicker fabric. Over exposed a bit, in reality this has the most lovely deep shades of indigo & green... India cotton takes colour in really well, that orange day cover is the same fabric. This is something like 350x150cm I think.


The same one, still not a very good picture IMO.

And just for fun, some experiments with fluoro fabric paints:


Tie dyed, then "painted" with a sharp beaked bottle filled with a 50/50% mix of liquid fluoro pigment and airbrushing fastener meant for textile painting.


Ok, not much of the original tie dye colours can be seen here

[Kathy]

Great stuff Taika-Kim! Thanks for the examples of the flourescent paints.

Oh...and the term I beleive you were looking for was Duvet cover. So not completely English

Kathy

[tiedyejudy]

I couldn't decide if this should be posted under dyeing techniques or Silk Apparel, so feel free to move it Steve!

I tried LWI on some fringed silk scarves this weekend, and some of them came out really neat!  The scarves have devore cut designs which pick up the dyes differently than the background, creating an opalescent effect.  I am going to post a close-up, hoping it's not too large, but you need to see closer than normal to understand what I'm talking about:


I applied the dyes using a squeeze bottle, about 2-4oz of 3 or 4 colors(mixed using less dye than normal to achieve a light shade), then added some water to further mottle the dyes.  My favorite container for dyeing these is an old pyrex baking dish, which is just long enough for me to do 2 scarves at a time! 
Here's another color range:

The only problems I had with these scarves is that 1)there were some areas that did not take the dye, and 2) I did not know that I needed to HAND WASH, not machine wash on gentle cycle, and the fringes were horribly tangled when I removed them from the washer after pre-laundering!  But when I hand-washed after dyeing and applying a softener, I had less trouble de-tangling the fringe.     

Judy

[mishoga]

I mentioned on another thread that I am not quite managing LWI as I would like.
I found these pants on the internet and absolutely love them. Is this LWI???
If so, how would you go about creating something similar?
Here's the link to them (check out their clothes)
http://www.jai-dye.com/ecweb/ProductDetail.aspx?prodid=16&catid=28

I've been staring at this image for almost 1.5 hours now and I can't figure out how to do that. I've never been so baffled with color.