Does ProChem have an equivalent to Dharma's Fire Red or Avocado Procion dyes?

Name: Erin

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Linda Johansen's book
Fabric Dyer's Dictionary
shows how to mix a small number of Procion dyes to obtain a large number of different solid colors

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Message: I looked to see if you have a match for Dharma FIRE RED and AVOCADO on Pro Chem and Dye. I live on the east coast and shipping is killing me. I am in love with those colors though. I need to buy asap to teach a class. I have heard good things about Chinese red which has a mate with Pro chem...but I really love the FIRE RED and i am scared it will be a big change.

I am also having a hell of a time with black. I do a penguin design that is mostly black. I use squirt bottles and wonder...I have never done a vat dye...I also worry the stuff I think recommended on here has to be warm..but I keep mine refrigerated. So...

Dharma's Fire Red and Avocado Procion MX dyes are both mixed in-house by Dharma, sorry, which is why you didn't see them on my charts on "Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?". My best advice is to try all the ProChem colors whose color chips in the catalog look closest; compare their printed color chart to the one in the Dharma printed catalog, if you can, instead of just comparing it on a computer monitor. None of the in-house color mixtures will be an exact match, but maybe some will be just as good. ProChem's Grass Green looks pretty close, but there's no telling for sure until you test it on fabric. Their avocado looks a bit yellower than Dharma's, in the color chip. The reds are harder to compare from a color chip, at least for me.

Vat dyes are a different type of dye than reactive dye. You probably don't want to use them now.

Refrigerating dye would not be a problem for the warmer-water dye. All reactive dyes become unreactive at refrigerator temperature, which is why you refrigerate to make the dyes last longer. They all have to be warmed up for the dye reaction to occur; for Procion dyes, putting the refrigerated dyes on room-temperaqture cotton, with room-temperature soda ash, is enough. For Remazol dyes it's best to let the dyes "batch" on the cotton at a warmer temperature, either in hot weather outside, or by microwaving a shirt for a minute while it's still wet with dye, or by putting them inside a black plastic garbage bag in the sun or inside a hot car or something. No need for the warmth until after the dye and soda ash are on the fabric.

Reactive Black 5, which is sold by ProChem as their Liquid Reactive Remazol black, is a great dye but so are the various Procion MX black mixtures. The advantage of the Liquid Reactive Remazol black is that it won't separate out at the edges no matter what, since it's a single-color dye instead of a mixture. Dharma's New Black, or black MX-CWNA, was identical to the ProChem Procion #608 black until Dharma had to change the formula during a shortage of one of its constituent colors, so the 608 Black will be familiar to you if you've been using Dharma dyes for a few years. (This Dye Forum post includes a picture of two Dharma blacks and two ProChem blacks (from The Fabric Dyer's Dictionary.) I just used some of ProChem's black 609 in tie-dyeing and did not like it as much as their 608 black. The 609 black is a bit greener. No matter which black you use, use twice as much dye powder as you would for another color, if not more. Disappointing blacks are usually caused by not using a large enough quantity of dye powder.

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Posted: Thursday - June 14, 2012 at 12:41 PM

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Does ProChem have an equivalent to Dharma's Fire Red or Avocado Procion dyes?

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