Name: Seri

Message: Hello.  I was making nylon rosaries for my son's class of 2nd graders.  I purchased 1/8" nylon cord.  I was trying to find a cheap way to dye the cord.  I tried the kool-aide but was looking for something that would get the kids more involved.

I purchased bingo dabbers which worked great as far as getting the kids involved.  After dabbing the rosary, we put each rosary in foil and set it in a sunny window for 4 days.  (I didn't have a lot of time to test the colorfastness but was hoping this would work.)  I also thought of taking the rosary in foil and warming it in the oven but then someone said they might melt.  I haven't tried that yet.

I brought home the rosaries, rinsed my son's rosary and the color kept bleeding.  I decided to put it in the soda ash again (room temperature) and it lost more color and was still bleeding.  I did pre-soak the cords in soda ash before the kids "painted" them but there were no directions so I just used warm water for 20 minutes.

Is there something I can do make the color stay?  Would the retayne stuff that you have on your web site work?  I'm trying to keep this as low-cost as possible but I don't want their rosaries getting wet and coloring the kids or their clothes.

Hopefully, you have a solution.  Maybe they will just have to have a solid colored rosary and do the kool-aide dying method at their own home.

Are you saying that you attempted to use soda ash to fix the pigment in bingo markers? I'm sorry, but soda ash is no use at all in setting non-dye colors such as those found in water-soluble markers. (It is used only in fixing a certain kind of dye, fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye; these dyes are never found in markers.) In fact, soda ash should never be used to dye nylon, because nylon takes dye only under acidic conditions. When using a real dye to dye nylon, always use a little vinegar or another acid, such as citric acid, to help set the dye. I doubt that vinegar would have helped with the bingo daubers, however, because they contain pigment, not dye.

I think that what you need to do first is wash out as much of the bingo marker ink from your nylon rosary cords as possible. You're not going to be able to use bingo markers as dye. Since they are not permanent markers, but are instead intended for use on paper, they are not suitable for any material that might ever be exposed to water. Start by soaking the cords in cool water; washing out the unwanted pigments will probably go fastest in hot water.

I am afraid that the ink in the bingo daubers will probably not respond to Retayne as a dye fixative. Retayne will work only on dyes that have a negative charge. There's no reason to think that the particles of pigment used in water-soluble marking pens will have the correct electrical charge to attract the Retayne and be held in place by it.

A permanent marking pen, such as a Sharpie marker, should work well enough to meet your needs. These markers are resistant to water and partially resistant to laundering, especially if you let the cords dry for at least one month before rinsing them or otherwise exposing them to liquid. The markers do not contain dye and cannot be set as dye, but, unlike bingo daubers, their pigment-containing transparent inks are relatively long-lasting. When used to mark clothing, Sharpie pen inks last through a number of runs through the washing machine before fading much. They are labeled as being non-toxic, but, like all art supplies that are not made of food, should never be permitted in children's mouths.

If you really want to dye the nylon cords, rather than painting them with permanent marking pens, you can do so pretty easily. Once you've gotten the water-soluble marking pen ink out of the nylon cords, you can dye them with an acid dye. The best dyes for nylon are available only by mail-order—see my FAQ page on how to dye nylon —but you will not need to use the best dyes for your project. Acid dyes are also found in food coloring, unsweetened drink mix, and even in all-purpose dye mixtures such as the Rit® or Tintex® brand dyes you can find at your local pharmacy. You cannot set them in a sunny window, but instead will need to actually cook the cords in hot water into which you have dissolved your dyes. If you are going to be using a cooking pot, you should use only food coloring or Kool-aid type drink mix, because textile dyes such as Rit dye should never be used in the pots you use to prepare food. Add one to two tablespoons of plain distilled white vinegar for every quart of water in your dyebath. Leave the cords in the hot water as you increase the temperature of the water until it is very hot, 205°F, which is slightly below boiling temperature. Continue to heat the cords in the drink mix for half an hour, then turn off the heat and allow them to cool. Rinse well in cool water only. (Do not ever try to dye cotton with drink mix or food coloring; these food dyes can be used only on nylon, silk, or wool.) An advantage of using drink mix or food coloring as dyes is that you do not need to worry if you see the children putting the cords into their mouth later.

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