Name: Kristi
Message: My daughter (12) is doing a science fair project regarding dyeing using different waters ex: well water, rain water. and bottled water.  She is also using different fibers.  Are there any age appropriate books that may be useful in this project?  Any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.

No, I'm afraid that I do not know of any kids' books on dyeing that are worthwhile. All of the dyeing books I've read so far are either intended for adults, or so non-scientific as to be useless. (See Reviews of Books and Videos on Hand Dyeing and Fabric Painting for some of my favorites.) For my son's science fair projects in middle school, I have helped him to locate the relevant portions in scientific books, such as John Shore's Cellulosics Dyeing, and then helped translate what they are saying into something a non-chemist can understand. There was simply no alternative; we checked out every possible book from the library, but none of the children's books were useful, and none of the adult books were easy for him to follow without assistance, due to the use of words and procedures with which he was unfamiliar. The single best book for a non-chemist would be "Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers", by Linda Knutsen, but it is out of print. (Our public library has a copy.)

What kinds of dyes is your daughter using? Lower quality dyes, such as the all-purpose dyes that are easy to find in stores, will perform just about as badly with distilled water as with hard water. No matter what dye you are using, three other factors - the choice of fiber, the pH, and the temperature at which you do the dyeing - will each make a vastly greater difference than the choice of water, though bad water can cause difficulties unless water softener is added. Salt will also make a big difference for some dyes. For detailed information about which types of dyes are recommended for each of various natural or synthetic fibers, please see "About Dyes". The best dyes for wool are acid dyes, while the best dyes for cotton are fiber reactive dyes. All-purpose dyes will work on both, though not as well as good fiber reactive dyes on cotton, and less reliably on wool than the best acid dyes available from mail-order dye suppliers (see my Sources for Dyeing Supplies page). 

Your daughter will need to know what is in your well water in order to be able to say anything intelligent about its effects. Have you had your well professionally tested? You can easily test the pH of your water yourself with pH paper (you can order this from a company such as Dharma Trading Company), but you cannot determine the hardness easily by yourself. Hardness is a measure of dissolved minerals such as magnesium or calcium. Large amounts of dissolved minerals can interfere with dyeing, and can also form insoluble precipitates with soap, creating the soap scum that makes such a mess of sinks and bathtubs. The well water in the house in which I grew up contained a large amount of iron; I do not know if the concentration of iron was enough to matter in dyeing, however. Iron in sufficient quantities can alter the colors of many dyes, typically dulling them down to more somber colors, and is used as a mordant to increase the washfastness of some natural dyes. A good book on natural dyeing would be useful for you to look up the effects of iron and other minerals as mordants in dyeing.

Ordinary bottled water is typically just filtered tap water, though it may taste better due to coming from a different location. The best tasting spring water contains dissolved hardness minerals. Bottled distilled water, which tastes too "flat" to be enjoyable to drink, is the ideal for use in scientific experiments, and might actually produce a different result from that of tap water, but it is too expensive and inconvenient for regular use in dyeing. For people who have bad water that interferes with getting the brightest of colors in dyeing, it is easier and cheaper to just add a water treatment such as the original Calgon (not the scented bath salts sold by the same company!), instead of buying distilled water. The chemical you need to buy for use in treating hard water is sodium hexametaphosphate, sometimes referred to as 'Metaphos'. Many of the dyeing recipes at PRO Chemical & Dye's very informative web site call for the use of Metaphos to help avoid any problems in case of hard water. It is also important to use in the washing-out process, if the water used in the laundry is hard.

An interesting way to mimic hard water would be to purchase "Burton Brewing Salts" at a beer brewing supply store. Since the water used in brewing can make a big difference in the final taste of the beer made from it, some home brewers like to add salts to mimic a historical style found in a particular place. Burton Brewing Salts are inexpensive; they contain calcium sulfate, potassium choride and magnesium sulfate. (Check your business telephone directory to see if a homebrewing supply shop is located nearby.)

Rain water is not hard like some well water, but it might have a low pH due to acid rain. This would be interesting to test with pH paper. A neutral pH is around 7; acid rain will have a lower pH. Acid rain will be relatively weak in its ionic strength, however, so even a small quantity of one of the pH adjusting chemicals needed for dyeing, vinegar for dyeing wool or soda ash for dyeing cotton with fiber reactive dye, will easily overcome any differences caused by the pH of the rain water.

It is very important that any science fair project include proper credits for all sources of information. Here is a link to a Microsoft Word document containing the best information I've been able to find on how to cite a weblog entry.

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