Black MX-CWA (Dharma's Jet Black and ProChem's Cotton Black) always seems too brownish to me, even if I give it the much higher temperature that they say it requires. (Apparently it contains a Cibacron F dye, in addition to Procion MX dyes, from the old recipe from Straw Into Gold.) Why don't you try adding some blue to it when you mix it up? These black dyes are all mixtures of different colors of dye, anyway. Use a blue other than turquoise if you don't want turquoise halos in your tie-dyeing. Cobalt blue (blue MX-2G) would be ideal. No need to wait until you buy new dye, to fix this problem.
I always like the blue-ish cast of Black MX-CWNA better. (That's Dharma's New Black, Jacquard's Warm Black, and ProChem's 608 Bluish Black.) A brownish black looks tired to me. I don't bother to mix different blacks together. My favorite fiber reactive black is the
Remazol reactive black 5, because it contains only one color, so it does not separate out into weird-colored halos at the edges. It's the only black to use for
LWI if you want black instead of all those
interesting constituent colors.
If you haven't already done so, check out Dharma's
description of their black dyes:
- "#39 Black- tub dyes with a green cast and edges are blue in tie dye.
- "#44 Better Black-tub dyes with a purple-blue cast and edges are blue in tie-dye.
- "#250 Jet Black-This is the most concentrated of all the blacks and gives the deepest black when used in tub (vat, bucket, washing machine, etc.) dyeing with hot tap water (130-150F degrees). Can be olive green or gray when used for direct application methods (tie dye, batik, painting, etc) unless kept very warm somehow, and edges are green in tie-dye.
- "#300 New Black-tub dyes with a very blue cast and edges are blue/pink in tie-dye."
Dharma doesn't carry the single-color reactive black 5 (except for special-order Red Label Silk Colors), but you can order it from ProChem as their Liquid Reactive Remazol dye, or buy it at the local sewing store in the form of Dylon Permanent 12 Black.
Paula
