Pigment Dyeing

[steve]

Anybody use pigment dyes for tie-dyeing here? Personally, I haven't even tried them as I have been satisfied with the results obtained with procion dyes. I do have a few bottles of Liquitex kicking around though.

Should I keep this topic area around?

Steve

[Marg]

Well, I use the Liquitex Medium Viscosity (now known as "Soft Body") for pigment-dyed tapestries. For me, this is really fun. I can make really BIG pieces (I use old 50 cotton/50 poly hotel sheets or the $3-$4 cotton sheets from Ikea), I don't have to get out the blender and chemicals and I can see my results right away. The main drawback is the weather as this has to be done outside. The Liquitex prices have gone up considerably since last summer but I bought a ton of it from DickBlick.com before the price increase. I've tried this for shirts but the pieces end up very muddled. For anyone who wants to make big pieces and doesn't want to use lots of water or chems this is the way to go. Marg

[OH tie-dyer]

My son and I tried using the Liquitex to tie-dye.  We were really disappointed.  The colors were pale and dull and we got ugly dark lines where the paint pooled on the bottom.   Also, we found that our squirt bottles were stained permanently when we tried to clean them. 
We went back to procion dyes.

[Lelia187]

I had recently gotten the Art of Tie Dye by Mike Fowler and he said he liked to use Pigment dyes for tapestries. I make tapestries a lot and would like to try pigment dyeing, but I dye inside since it is winter... should i just stick with the procion? Also, Procion MX dye seems a lot cheaper!

[Marg]

Hi, the pigment dying really cannot be done inside. It has got to be hot out (above 80F and sunny and not too windy). I LOVE this method and have gotten really beautiful tapestries using it. I love having the big pieces (I have used coton/poly sheets from hotels that I got for free and the cheap Sova sheets from Ikea). I love seeing the results right away! But wait until next summer...if you have more questions or want to chat about pigment dying more, please keep posting! Marg

[ktaltre]

When I took M. Fowler's class three years ago, we all did a large, old sheet tapestry with some sort of prochem paints (don't remember which) that were thinned with water - half paint/half water.
I bring this up now because I have found my sheet; I hadn't been using it since it was too big, but I finally cut it down and hemmed it all around and it's now my summer sheet on my bed. Woohoo -mandala dreaming!
The paint set with time not heat and the sheet has been washed several times since it was made with no loss of color. It feels soft to the touch with no loss of hand.
I thought it was quite easy to do at the time and it came out really well for the first try at working with paint like it was dye.
k. taltre