? your combination for mixing thickened Dyes?

[hometowntiedye]

Okay so for Tie Dyeing for 5 years you will probably find it rather funny that I have never used thickened dye to do actual tie dying, I have thickened the dye and used stamps to apply but I have never used actual thicken dye to put directly on to the tied up items. 

My question is:

What is your process for making thickened dye to use in dying?  We currently use Urea, Ludigol, and water along with the procion dyes.  We do have alginate thickener and water softener.  I am good on the amount of dyes to use as we have a pretty set amount to put in each bottle for our colors, but I am looking for help on how much water softener and Alginate to use.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks so much

Jolene

[pburch]

There's Michael Fowler's recipe quoted on my page about Sodium alginate, Superclear, and other dye thickeners. No water softener in that recipe, but there is some in the following recipe. I will never use alginate without water softener again! I hate that unmeltable calcium alginate gel, stuck in the bottles.

And no liquid Calgon polycarboxylates, either, only pure sodium hexametaphosphate for water softening.

-Paula

[pburch]

As far as the Ludigol goes, I think it's useless unless you are steaming or microwaving your dyes, or perhaps living in a very smoggy area. It's very good for preventing unwanted dye reduction when you're heating it. Unfortunately, in my tests, it did NOT work as a preservative for fiber reactive dye.

The amount of sodium hexametaphosphate you need depends on how hard the water in your area is. See the discussion water softener, how much to use in the dye forum on my site.

-Paula

[tiedyejudy]

I have had more than one disaster using sodium alginate, so I have been using Dharma Trading's Superclear for several years and generally use about 3 Tbsp per 2 cups of liquid dye, and no water softener.  So the mix is dye powder, tap water and Superclear. 
Judy

[hometowntiedye]

Thanks for the advice.  I am planning on getting superclear once my alginate is gone but I cannot stand to waste it so I will wait until I use it up.  I will give it a try with the alginate and maybe only make a few bottles at a time maybe rainbow colors and see how it goes.  Thanks again.

[steve]

My thickened chemical water recipe may be found here: http://tie-dyewiki.com/wikinew/index.php?title=Chemical_water

Alcohol makes everything work better.