Name: Liz

Message: Hi there. Firstly thank you for a wonderful informative site. we have gone through as much of your site as possible and not found a solution to our problem.  We have spiral tie-dyed 100% cotton tablecloth with a hot water fibre reactive black dye, aiming for a grey by adjusting our salt and soda ash quantities. Yet although we achieve our grey there is a significant amount of a rusty pink hue that shows through in the lighter areas. How can we achieve a consistent grey without the pink? Secondly how can we neutralise the pink on the currently dyed cloths without losing the grey?  We thank you for your time in reviewing our questions and look forward to hearing from you soon! 

What kind of hot-water fiber reactive dyes are you using? Are they Procion H, Drimarene X, Levafix, Cibacron, Novacron, Kayacelon, or what? Knowing this can sometimes make a difference.

Most black dyes are mixtures of several different colors of dyes. If the different dye colors separate out on the fabric, as often happens in tie-dyeing, you will get multiple colors. If you dye a paler color than black with them, you will usually get some color other than a neutral grey. Some blacks dilute to dark blue, some to dark purple.

To neutralize a pink, try overdyeing with a little green. Look at a color wheel, and try the opposite color.

To get a solid color grey, it is best to avoid black dye, and instead use a mixture which has been standardized to produce a neutral grey color. Look for a dye color with "grey" in the name. To get a lighter color of any dye, it is better to use less dye, rather than less salt or soda ash, because results are more predictable, although you will still get the same "off" colors. I do not recommend adjusting soda ash or salt concentration in order to adjust the final intensity of the dye.

To get shades of neutral grey in tie-dye, you will do best to use a single-color black. Yes, there are a few of these. The one I have used is reactive black 5, which is a Remazol dye. Remazol dyes require warm to hot water, 40°C to 60°C (104°F to 140°F). The advantages of using a single-color back are huge, because in tie-dyeing you do not get any halos of unwanted color. See "Vinyl Sulfone Fiber Reactive Dyes" for more information about Remazol dyes in general.

Where can you buy Remazol dyes? Your IP address indicates that you are probably in South Africa. Unfortunately, I do not know any dye suppliers in South Africa, but I know that Dystar, the original maker of Remazol dyes, does sell dyes there. (I would be grateful if you could tell me about your dye suppliers, since I get asked about this sort of thing.) Ask your current dye supplier if they carry reactive black 5, or Remazol black, or vinyl sulfone black. This particular dye is the most popular reactive black dye in the world, in the textile industry, so you ought to be able to find it. You can also mail-order Remazol dyes from Tobasign in Spain, Batik Oetoro in Australia, or from Granat Farvekompagniet in Denmark, but it is usually more economical to find a local source. (Here is a link to my page of contact information which lists all of the above companies.) Although I like the Remazol dyes sold by PRO Chemical & Dye in the US, I don't recommend that you order them, as they are sold there already dissolved in water, the weight of which will make it more expensive to ship internationally.

In North America and Europe, we can also buy reactive black 5 from some local shops, under the Dylon brand name. Some Dylon black dyes are mixtures, but a couple of their dye lines include reactive black 5. Dylon Permanent Dye, Dylon Hand Dye, and Dylon Machine Dye all contain reactive black 5. Other Dylon black dyes which do NOT include this dye are Dylon Multi Purpose, Dylon All-In-One Colourfast Fabric Dye. "12 Black" is usually reactive black 5, but "8 Black" or "Ebony" is a mixture of several colors.

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