Name: Spressi

Message: Have you tried the instant-set silk dyes offered by FunWithSilk.com?
I was interested in them, but haven't seen any information about them.
Apparently they do not require heat setting.

No, I have not tried them. I tend to prefer a watercolor blended-color effect on fabric, so I'm not as attracted by the claim that the dye sets instantly on contact. The product stays exactly where you put it, which can be a good thing for some uses. You cannot use salt or alcohol on them for special effects as you can with acid dyes or with heat-set silk paints. The colors are said to be bright and not at all subtle, and to yield unpredictable colors when diluted (especially the black). The main purpose for which the Colorhue Instant Set Silk Dyes are promoted appears to be in dyeing silk ribbons. 

I believe that Colorhue Instant Set Silk dye is almost certainly actually a pigment dye, otherwise known as fabric paint: that is, it contains a finely ground pigment plus an acrylic binder that attaches the particles to the fiber. Pigment dyes are not actually dyes at all, but instead fabric paints which act very much like a dye.

The website for Things Japanese claims that Colorhue Silk Dye is a fiber reactive dye that works on silk, wool, rayon, and linen, but there is no evidence that I can find anywhere to indicate that it is even a dye at all, rather than a fabric paint. If it is a reactive dye, it makes no sense for it to work well on both plant and animal fibers with no added acid or base in either case. Rayon and linen simply cannot be dyed by reactive dyes at the low pHs required for dyeing wool; cellulose requires a high pH in order to react with any reactive dye. Only direct dye, or a fabric paint, can be used on both extremes of fiber content with no shift in formula. Given the method by which the Colorhue "dye" is used, it cannot be a direct dye, so it must be a fabric paint, similar perhaps to Jacquard Product's Dye-na-flow fabric paint, but with a catalyst included so that the acrylic binder would set at room temperature, without requiring heat-setting.

On the other hand, Things Japanese does mention that there is no guarantee of colorfastness on cotton, which, like linen and rayon, is a cellulose fiber. Perhaps it is an acid dye, like the French silk dyes, but with some polymer, similar to those used in fabric paints, added to set the dye. It might include similar ingredients to Jacquard Products' Permanent Dyeset Concentrate, a product that is intended for use with Green Label Silk Colors Remazol Dyes on silk; Permanent Dyeset Concentrate is sometimes used with Sennelier Tinfix dyes, which are mostly acid dyes, as a substitute for steam-setting.

If you try the Colorhue Instant Set Silk "dye", I would be happy to learn what you think of it.


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