I want to know what is in the Jacquard Dye Fix and why does it work? It seems like it's an acid...maybe I should litmus test it. I try not to touch it or breathe (or take it outside) when I use it but I'm very sensitive and fussy about all chemical odors. I'm like the canary in the mine shaft. Even air fresheners bother me.

Jacquard Permanent Dyeset Concentrate is a liquid fixative used in silk painting to set silk dyes, such as Jacquard Green Label Silk Colors (which are based on Remazol fiber reactive dyes) or Sennelier Tinfix Design Silk Colors (which contain acid dyes, and possibly also basic dyes). It is completely different from the high-pH liquid sodium silicate solutions sometimes used as an after-fix with fiber reactive dyes.

The exact contents of Jacquard Permanent Dyeset Concentrate are a trade secret, but you can learn some things about it. This MSDS [PDF] says that it contains a "resinous material", that is, some sort of plastic binder, in addition to a small amount, 0.7%, of formaldehyde, and 2% methanol. It is probably the formaldehyde and methanol that are creating the odor about which you're concerned. Some people say that Jacquard Green Label dyes contain some of this fixative, based on their perception of its smell as they work with it, though there is nothing in the MSDS for the dyes indicating any formaldehyde or methanol. (Is there a threshold quantity below which formaldehyde or methanol do not have to be reported on an MSDS?)

Jacquard Permanent Dyeset Concentrate is a convenient substitute for the process of steaming, when you need to fix your silk dyes. This makes them particularly convenient for use when teaching classes. I certainly would not want to haul a large steamer along to a class, and the time required for steaming would cut into class time badly. However, you will not use Dyeset Concentrate in the same class period in which the dyes are applied, because the dyes painted onto the silk should dry for 24 hours before setting with Dyeset Concentrate, just as they would before steaming. Here are the instructions from Jacquard Products:

I will confess that I personally do not much favor the idea of the Jacquard Permanent Dyeset Concentrate, though it obviously has its advantages, especially for a class. I don't want to use a resin-containing product to turn my dyes into an acrylic fabric paint, because, if I'm going to do that, why not just use a fabric paint to start with, instead? It would be less trouble, and the results will probably be similar.

Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow paint, or Setasilk paint, or any of several other acrylic fabric paints, work very nicely as silk paints, giving results very similar to silk dyes, not quite as intensely colored, but still very intense in color. But then, Jacquard Permanent Dyeset Concentrate is supposed to give colors which are not as intensely colored as steaming, too. The way that acrylic-based silk paints are set is with dry heat, such as by ironing, which is simple to do.

When steaming is possible, you will get amazingly brilliant results by steaming your silk dye paintings, rather than using a liquid dye fixative. Jacquard Dyeset Concentrate gives results that are not quite as good as steaming, but much more convenient to obtain.

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