Name: Alexandria
Message: Is it possible to soak silk in sodium acetate, let it dry, then hand paint with mx dyes? I don't like the idea of loosing the shine of my silk but would like to use the same dye solution on both cotton (soaked in soda ash) and silk. Thank you very much for your time, your website is a wealth of knowledge.

I'm sorry, but I have to admit on this one that I just don't know. I've never tried letting sodium acetate dry in silk, and I haven't read a reference to doing so, either. If you experiment with this, please let me know what you observe!

It's worth noting, however, that you are going to have to pour the dye solution into another container in order to paint with it, anyway. If you paint with your dye solution onto soda-soaked cotton, the tiny amount of soda ash that dissolves in your dye on your brush (or other applicator) will be enough, when carried back to the dye container for the next brushful, to contaminate the dye. Once even a tiny amount of soda ash gets into your dye, the dye will go bad quickly, especially if it's a rapid-reacting dye like Procion MX. You must pour enough dye for one day's use, or even one hour's use, into a separate container in order to use it to paint on soda-soaked cotton, even if the soda ash has been dried in the cotton, or else your dyes will go bad. Dyes that are protected from all soda ash contamination will stay good for two or three weeks after being dissolved in water, if stored at room temperature, and many more weeks if refrigerated.

So, you could prepare your dye stock solutions for use on both cotton and silk, then, when you pour some of  your dye into another container for painting silk, add the sodium acetate to each container of dye paint. If you're preparing a quarter-cup (60 ml) of a dye color, add one-quarter teaspoon (1 gram) of sodium acetate to it, and stir to dissolve.

It is possible that you will get good results by painting with MX dyes on silk with no fixative at all, if you steam-set the dyes for half an hour afterwards. (This will not work on cotton.) Although the official instructions advise using acid or base, a few people have reported using Procion MX or Procion H or Remazol dyes to paint on silk without using any fixative, not soda ash, not baking soda, not sodium acetate nor vinegar nor citric acid. I have not tested this very much myself, though it cries out for experimentation. I know that violet MX-2R, the "grape" pure single-hue unmixed dye often sold under the misnomer of violet MX-G, bonds well to silk at just about any pH, given some heat.

I should also point out that most of the shine of the silk is still there after dyeing with soda ash. The silk loses a little of its shine, but silk satin or charmeuse is still shiny after dyeing it with the soda ash method at room temperature. You might ant to try dyeing a scarf with LWI to see what it looks like after being exposed to the high pH.

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