Name: Jami
Message: You recently mentioned in the Dyer's list mailing list:  "Orange MX-2R is useful for mixing a true red" (Nov 4)  Could you tell me how to do this?  You don't list true red in your list of FAQ to get specific colors. 

Try mixing equal parts of orange MX-2R with red MX-5B. (See my list of "Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?" to translate these codes to the catalog names and numbers of these dyes at various suppliers.) I believe that these are the dyes in the mixture used in Jacquard Fire Engine Red, and it's a good one. You may need to adjust the proportions to taste, and, as with any fiber reactive dye, the proportions needed will be different for different fibers. If you measure by weight, your proportions will be more reproducible, for one type of fiber, than if you measure by teaspoons, but measuring by teaspoons is less trouble, if you are as not much concerned with reproducibility.

You can also get a true red by mixing a small amount of any yellow, including yellow MX-8G, yellow MX-GR, or yellow MX-3R(A), with either red MX-5B or red MX-8B. I like the mixture of red MX-5B with orange MX-2R because it does not make yellow halos, as the popular mixture of yellow MX-8G with red MX-8B does, and red MX-5B tends to dissolve better than red MX-8B.

There is a true red among the dichlorotriazine (Procion MX type) dyes, red MX-G, or reactive red 5, but I did not find it to be superior in any way to the mixture of orange MX-2R with red MX-5B, and it was much more expensive. Red MX-G is also very hard to find; none of the major dye retailers carry it.


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