protein fabrics and acid dyes; print workshop notes.

 silk habotai (acid dye) - silk habotai (acid dye) - wool delaine (acid dye)

Printing Silk with Acid Dyes

Before starting make sure you have weighed your fabric DRY and your fabric is scoured and wetted out prepared for dyeing.

When dyeing or printing with Acid dyes, silk retains all its unique properties of lustre softness and handle.
If printing dischargeable acid dye make sure that your background colour is dischargeable.

Recipe:

20-40g Acid Dye
40g Glyezin BC (Increases soluability of dye)
50g Urea
340g Boiling Water
500g Thicker, Manutex 20g
Ammonium Sulphate (fixer)

All powdered dyes must be weighed and prepared in the vacuum unit

Method

Paste the dye with warm water
Add urea and paste again. Add 300g of boiling water and stir until the the dye is fully dissolved. Allow to cool.
Make up 500gs of thickener by weighing 50g of Manutex RS and sprinkling in 500g of cold water while stirring. An electric mixer gives a consistent result. The paste should then be left 30 mins before using.
Add the dye while stirring in at a high speed Dissolve 20g of Aluminium Sulphate and stir to produce a standard print paste. Then:

Print--------Dry (avoiding excessive heat)----------Steam (30-45mins)----------Wash Off

The delicare nature of silk demands a mild wash off in a detergent such as Metapex.