A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Discharge paste = Decolourant?

I hope so!



I didn't have any Decolourant, but had discharge paste, (although I used a Canadian supplier) and I had a piece of procion MX dyed fabric that hadn't turned out so well, so I put them together.  :)  I used one of the stencils that I've had around forever and never used, just dabbing the paste on, and I think I've improved it. I could quilt the dog out of it with some bright coloured thread and play with a bit - and maybe have something good!




and then I used another stencil with discharge paste and Procion MX dye powder (mixed straight into the paste) and then applied in the same way.




I used a blue for the birds, brown for the branches, green. for the leaves and red for the berries. On the right, I used an iron, and as you can see, didn't get the expected results in terms of colour.  On the left, I tried it with a heat gun - got a better bleaching result, but not a better colour result.

I have tried it in the past on RTD cotton fabric and gotten much better results with the dye/discharge paste combo; but as you can see, on this fabric (a heavy cotton jersey ) -  not so much!

And the experiments continue...

Photobucket

7 comments:

  1. Kit! I rather like this. I think you could hit it with some thread and really make it sing.

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  2. I want to have more information. You mixed MX dye and Decolourant together and got this??

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  3. No, I don't have decolourant - but I DO have discharge paste which I gather is simliar to/the same as declourant. And yes, I mixed some of the dye powder into the paste and got this. As I said, I've had much better results on cotton sheeting or lighterweight cotton rather than this heavy cotton jersey.

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  4. I'm curious about adding the dye powder to the discharge paste...do you have to have fabric that has been soaked in soda ash? What makes the dye adhere to the fabric? Is it permanent?

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  5. oh kit i love it - it looks like chinese lacquer work - gorgeous!!

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  6. Thanks for sharing your experiments! I am also interested in knowing if you used soda ash to fix the dye. Do you presoak the fabric or mix the soda ash directly in with the dye and discharge paste? Thanks again for the info!! :)

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