Name: Janine

Message: Does anyone ever use liquid form procion H dyes for batiking? I tried it but found it very watery and hard to brush on over the wax to get between the wax onto the fine silk. Can I first do tie-dye with the procion H and then the MX after with batik?

Procion H dyes can be as intense and brilliant as Procion MX dyes. They are very similar, chemically, to the Procion MX dyes, which will probably give you the same problem in painting them on, since they, too, are mixed up in water. 

However, unlike Procion MX dyes, Procion H dyes are not used for room temperature batik, unless you steam them afterwards, because they are hot water dyes; the much greater heat in the dyebath required to set the dyes will melt the wax. This is not a problem with steam-setting, since the dye can be set at the same time that the wax is melted onto the unprinted newsprint used to wrap the silk for steaming.

If your Procion H dyes are producing pale colors, this may be caused by not steam-setting them, or it may be caused by using too little dye powder or liquid dye concentrate, when mixing up the dye paint to apply to the batik.

If you don't like the thinness of your dyes, you can make thicker dye paints by adding sodium alginate or another thickener.

You can redye your fabric several times, depending on the thickness of the fabric. A thick sturdy silk, as thick as the cotton in a t-shirt, say, will take five or more distinct layers of dye and show a difference each time, but a very fine, sheer silk can be dyed only once or twice, after which all of the dye receptor sites are used up, and no more color can be added. Procion H and Procion MX dyes are so similar, chemically, that they probably use the very same dye sites. Acid dyes use different dye sites.

I don't think I can give you further advice without asking you more questions. Which Procion H dyes are you using: are you buying them from G&S Dyes in Toronto, from PRO Chemical & Dye, from a reseller of Jacquard Products such as Dharma Trading Company, or from a European or Asian source? The auxiliary ingredients included in some of these will make a difference.

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