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Thread: Fabric Dye experiment.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    Fabric Dye experiment.

    I work in a lot of bland woods. I would only have access to the exotics through online purchases or if I was on vacation to Minneapolis or KC and visited a Woodcraft. Walnut is rare to find though the tree is everywhere, but a lot of what I find freshly cut is maple, poplar, aspen, and other pale, bland woods. I was watching some videos on dyeing turnings today, and I've always been very impressed by some of those I see online on the forums. The colors and depth with the glossy topcoat look really nice to me. I looked online at tutorials and dye prices for anilines and the like. I have some blue aniline from years back is powder form. I ran across some folks, though, that were using fabric dye such as Rit on their turnings with success. Steve Schlumpf had a popular post for a hollow form he dyed with Rit. So....I thought I'd run to my local Michael's store and see what colors there were. Lo and behold they had Tulip brand fabric dye on clearance for .99 -2.50 depending on color....most were $1.79. For that price I thought what the heck, let's give'r a try. I purchased 10 colors in liquid form and four packets of powder. I'll probably experiment with those with DNA, vinegar or water to see how they work with each. I also purchased two metallic, acrylic paints in copper and gold to see how they looked.

    I had an old poplar (I think) platter that I'd turned for practice and thought it would make a good test piece. I put on the green, lime, black, purple, light blue, yellow and fuschia. I also put the copper and gold in the center in a small patch. What you see if the first coat. Some of the dyes were thin and others (black) thick. They went on easy and dried very quickly. I'll need to sand them back for a second coat. I thinned the purple with water and it looks very blue to me. The black is very uniform and I am most impressed with it. I think it'll make a nice dye for the inside of forms. The copper and gold both look really nice too. I think they'll make a great accent if I decide to do that. I'm going to let them dry and then sand them back and see what that does. I then may try mixing colors for the next coat to see what happens. I plan to end it all with a high gloss top coat on whatever I end up with just to see how that finish goes on and dries on these dyes.

    If you have any tips for me I'd sure appreciate them (besides don't color wood, I've already crossed that bridge, it's too late).

    Thanks,

    AdamTint1.jpgTint2.jpgTint3.jpgTint4.jpg
    USMC '97-'01

  2. #2
    Some considerations - the amber tint of most woods will impart a green cast when a diluted blue is used. Red and green make brown, so using red first and applying green in partial areas can be interesting. Black gesso on the interior is much preferable to black dye IMO, but seal the interior first with shellac. Wetting the interior of a dry form can crack the form as the interior swells, but has no where to expand so something has to give.

    If you come upon figured maple, you might consider a diluted black first, sanded back and then apply your main color. The black enhances the figure.

    Finally, if you get serious about dye, get some metal acid dyes like Transtint as they are much more lightfast. Procion MX cellulose reactive dyes are also good.

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  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Adam, here are a couple of things to consider when dying wood. If possible use a diluted mix. You can always add additional coats of the diluted dye to reach the depth of color that you want but once the hue is too intense - your only recourse is to return the piece or sand it off. Keep in mind that whatever you use for a topcoat will darken the color immensely - enough so sometimes that it isn't even close to the color you thought you were going to create. Experiment with a bunch of different woods and realize that sanding makes a huge difference in just how much dye is absorbed. Sanding to 320 or above helps control saturation by limiting the scratch pattern that the dye can wick into. Speaking of sanding - make sure you have the piece sanded as good as possible because dye will highlight every little scratch for you!

    Lots of folks use dye on their turnings, so if you have any questions, please ask as I am sure there are 100s of ways to achieve great results! Have fun with it!
    Steve

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  4. #4
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    Steve and John, thanks for the replies, this is exactly the kind of advice I am looking for. I've never heard of black gesso so I'll have to look that up. I do think that each of these dyes I used could be thinned as you say Steve, they went on pretty thick. The amount I used and the coverage I got leads me to believe that I'll have enough of these to last me until I die, and I'm only 38. They cover a lot of ground and that's not thinned. Good to know the topcoat darkens too, I wouldn't have known that until it was too late. Thanks!
    USMC '97-'01

  5. #5
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    Adam, I think it's great that you're experimenting. I'm sure these dyes are great for that, but most fabric dyes do not hold their color on wood. Keep an eye on these, but I am going to guess they will fade quickly. Like JK said, try using metal acid dyes, but beware even those can be problematic in certain colors.
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  6. #6
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    A good source of information are pipemakers, the smoking kind of pipes. The briar that is used for pipes has pretty good looking grain, but through the use of dyes, the pipemakers have "popped" the look of briar. It will take a lot of experimentation, the woods we use are not like the briar and will not dye with the same end results.

    Another source of info is the gunstock makers, they generally use maple, and have developed dye methods to completely change the look of maple. The best of the information will be found looking at places that discuss building muzzle loading rifles.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
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    Adam, I have been using fabric dye for several years on my turnings. To begin with, I tried rubbing it on, spray bottle, etc. I never had any good success until I got a big steel bowl and mixed enough dye to be able to dip the bowl (or whatever), completely submerging it for a few seconds. Bring it out (you'll want latex gloves on!) and let it drip over some newspapers on a little rack of some sort (my wife has several of these she calls cooling racks for stuff that comes out of the oven). If the dye pools in the bottom, simply use paper towels to blot the excess dye. I have received a lot of favorable comments on my work, so I guess it looks attractive. You can't be certain what color you'll end up with. For example, I use black dye a lot. Maple comes out a smokey green, birch comes out a deep olive green. The last turning is a cascara set with a pedestal lidded bowl and candle sticks. I dipped these in red dye which turned out too pinkish, even though I dipped them twice. Then I dipped them in black which turned the color to deep burgundy. I often use black as a top color to deepen whatever my base color is.

    I have color batches of dye mixed up and stored in plastic jugs. Each time I want to use one, I just shake it up and dump it in my big steel bowl. When I'm done, I pour the rest back into the jug. You'll notice that after a turning dries, the wood surface has furred up a little from the water in the dye. The grain has opened up and when you start applying a finish like tung oil, it soaks in real fast. It isn't until the 7th or 8th coat that it begins to lie on the surface, so that can be annoying. I have attempted, with reasonable success, to shorten this process by applying 2 or 3 coats of a water based finish (like Varathane) before using the oil finish on top. It doesn't quite pop the color and grain like oil does, but it reduces the finishing time by half.

    The next thing I want to try is using an airbrush to apply the finish rather than wiping it on. Maybe this will avoid the very fine gritty feel once a coat has dried.

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