Name: Jan

Region: BC, Canada

Message: Dear Paula,

First and foremost ... many thanks for your excellent and informative web site. Your hard work is much appreciated. I do hand embroidery called needle-painting. So, the perfect colors are critical. About a month ago I was saying to myself, “Wouldn’t it be fantastic if I stock up on Soie Surfine (white only) and find the way how to dye it myself … in exact shades I need?” I would also buy black as it is difficult to dye silk black well. But rest of the colors I would like to dye myself.

Color theory is not a problem. Because of my scientific background and my love for colors, I use to mix my own watercolor pigments for decades. However, to dye silk would be a different story. I need absolute consistency (repeatability), "true" results (using cyan-yellow-magenta-black model) and perfectly light-fast colors.

In your opinion … which dyes and dyeing method would bring best results? Please remember that I am after quality. So, the cost doesn’t matter. Also, I have an analytical lab … so I can measure in accuracy of parts per billion or finer, if I need to.

Of course Procion MX would be the most convenient, but I am scared by all those people claiming that colors in Procions always shift with silks. Is this the case in acid use of Procions as well? What would be great about Procion MX are the excellent primaries.

I’d looked at Lanaset dyes. They seems to be good, but I was not able to pin down really good (CMYK) primaries at that line. That, of course, is a fatal flaw as I will rely on computer models to help me to get the exact shades I need.


Hi Jan,

I think the most important point for you will be that you should dye by weight, not by volume. It's faster easier to measure out a teaspoonful of dye, but the results can be unpredictable, which is fine for many dyers, but not what you, in particular, want to obtain. If you always weigh your silk, your dye powder, and any auxiliaries, it will be possible for you to have quite consistent results. There can be a little variation from one jar of dye to another, but in general you will be able to repeat a color, if you are careful to always use the same weight of dye for a given weight of silk. Given your scientific background this should be easy for you to manage.

There are several different lines of dye that you could use for excellent results.

You could use a fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX or Cibacron F. You could combine the single-hue unmixed colors yourself to make your own mixtures of any hue. These are the most washfast of dyes, if you use them with soda ash. On the other hand, soda ash will slightly reduce the luster of your silk. I would imagine that that might be important to your needle-painting. It could work fine, but it's not what I recommend for you. Procion MX dye mixture colors shift less when used with acid instead of soda ash, but they're not the most washfast of dyes when used without soda ash. I don't see any real point to buying a fiber reactive dye specifically to use it with acid. It's handy for people who already have Procion dyes for dyeing plant fibers to be able to use them as acid dyes, by substituting vinegar or citric acid for the soda ash, and adding heat, but when used this way the fiber reactive dyes are not always as satisfactory as other lines of acid dye.

The second-best line of acid dyes available for dyeing silk and other protein fibers is the WashFast Acid dye line. These include excellent dyes, which are very popular and successful. On the other hand they are not as washfast as the Lanaset dyes, which I regard as the very best dyes for protein fibers, and some few of the WashFast Acid dyes are not very lightfast, either.

Your problem with the Lanaset dyes is, no doubt, the lack of a good magenta. I don't think that this should stop you. There are two reds that are very popular among expert dyers of silk and wool, Polar Red (whose generic name is Colour Index Acid Red 131) and WashFast Acid Magenta 338 (whose generic name is Colour Index Acid Red 138). WashFast Acid dyes are sold not only by PRO Chemical & Dye in the US, but also by Maiwa Handprints in Vancouver. Although I've never ordered from Maiwa, they have an excellent reputation; you'll probably want to buy your dyes from them, given your location. You will need to call them to ascertain which dye they sell, among the Washfast Acid dyes, is Acid Red 138.  Maiwa also sells the Lanaset dyes, under the brand name Telana. Telana dyes are identical to Lanaset dyes in every respect. Maiwa labels their WashFast Acid dyes "Ciba WashFast Acid dyes", because until recently Ciba was the manufacturer of these dyes, though their dyeing division has since been sold to Huntsman Textile Effects. Note that the Lanaset/Telana/Sabraset Jet Black is the very best black dye for silk available to hand dyers in North America. 

I would like to recommend a book to you, by Deb Menz, called Color in Spinning. I know that you're not spinning your own yarn, and neither am I. However, among all the material on spinning (which makes me wish I had time to take up a new hobby!) Deb Menz provides excellent information on dyeing with Lanaset dyes, including specific color mixing formulas for dyeing wool. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is dyeing with Lanaset dyes, regardless of whether or not they are spinning their fiber. She refers to the dyes under the brand name "Sabraset", which is what PRO Chemical and Dye labels these dyes as, but, just as with Telana,  Sabraset Dyes are identical to Lanaset dyes.  Of course, even when using Deb Menz's formulas, you'll still have to do a certain amount of trial and error to get exactly the shades you wish, but careful measurements and good record keeping are all you need to do well with that. I'm not sure how well your existing computer models, which are designed for use with pigments, will translate to any specific set of dyes, but I am sure that you can obtain all of the colors you want with the Lanaset line of dyes, and you will find the high washfastness and lightfastness to be very suitable for your needle-painting.

Please let me know what you decide to do, and how well it works out for you. I'm sure your background will help in your dyeing. My own background in biochemistry and biology has proved invaluable in my dye work.

For more information on Lanaset dyes, see "Looking for either a web or printed book reference with Lanaset color recipes" (my dyeing Q&A blog post from November 25, 2009), as well as the pages linked at the bottom of that post.

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