Name: Karen
Message: Hi! I am a batik artist. I use synthropol, procion dyes, cool water, table salt or glauber's, soda ash PHup and on occasion, urea. I find that my colors are rather dull, especially after overdyeing. What would you suggest to maintain really bright colors? I prefer to work with intense yellows, bright blues, turquoise, etc. I also do a lot of black and white. Sometimes my black is dull as well. Please, if you have an opportunity, give me some advise on maintaining bright color when batiking, tye-dyeing, etc. Thank you very much!!

Do you use water softener? Have you ever tried it? Hard water is a common cause of dull colors. The best stuff is sold especially for dyers, e.g. sodium hexametaphosphate (the link leads to this product at Fiber-arts.com). Use it when prewashing your fabric, when mixing your dyes, and when washing out afterwards.

Another possible cause of dull colors is backstaining, though this should not result in dull blacks. It will certainly dull down bright colors, if you are using direct application with different colors on different parts of the fabric, though obviously this is not an issue if you are immersion dyeing your entire piece of fabric in solid color dye baths. When backstaining is an issue, giving your dyes plenty of time to react, more than they need to attach to the fiber, so that all excess dye gets enough time to react with the water, can reduce this considerably.

Black requires a huge amount of dye, twice as much as another dark color. For mixing dyes for direct dye application, using MX dyes, PRO Chemical & Dye recommends 8 teaspoons or 20 grams of black per 250 ml cup; for dark 4 teaspoons or 10 mg of dye; for medium shades, 2 teaspoons or 5 grams per cup; and for pale shades, 1/2 teaspoon or 1 gram of dye.

Yet another cause of dull or pale colors is low reaction temperature. "Cold water" fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX, prefer to react with the fiber at temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 C.). I like to make sure my 'batching' temperatures are above 78 degrees F., personally. Typically the MX turquoise, and all mixtures made containing it, will be noticeably paler than desired, when reaction temperatures are low.

Heat can damage your dyes, even in powdered form; dye that has been left in a hot car will lose most of its reactivity, and must be replaced. Dye solutions should be used within just a few days of their being made. They will last longer if refrigerated, but be sure to let them return to room temperature before use.

Colors will appear brighter when there is a contrast on your work between brights and darks, but I don't think the effect of this is great enough to explain your complaint.

Color choice is particularly important in overdyeing. If you want bright colors, do not layer a fire engine red onto a royal blue to make purple, or a golden yellow onto a royal blue to make green; instead, use colors as close as possible to the printer's primaries of cyan, magenta, and yellow. A purple made with layers of magenta and cyan will be vastly brighter (though perhaps less rich) than one made with royal blue and bright red. So will a green made with cyan and pure yellow, as compared to one made with royal blue or golden yellow. Procion turquoise MX-G makes a good cyan, while either Procion red MX-5B or Procion red MX-8B will make a good magenta. Use Procion yellow MX-8G as your mixing yellow. For the brightest colors, use only two of the primaries in one region of the picture; any region on your work which is dyed with all three primary colors will be less bright in color.

Finally, fabric choice can matter, as well. Be sure to properly pre-scour your fabric before dyeing using hot water, Synthrapol, and soda ash. (This is entirely separate from the soda ash used to fix the dyes.) Look for a source for PFD fabric ("prepared for dyeing"). Mercerized cotton and rayon both produce much more intense colors than unmercerized cotton. Very thin silks will not accept nearly as many dye layers as thicker weaves of the same fiber.