Even Dyeing.—First wet the cloth or yarn thoroughly by soaking in hot water, then rinse well and wring it dry—if necessary, using a wringer. The dyestuff should already be carefully dissolved in a little boiling water. Pour some of this solution (not too much, for the shades should all be pretty light) into the dye-pot half full of lukewarm water. Then quickly and wholly immerse the wet material, stirring and working about with the dye-sticks, and let the whole heat steadily until it boils. After a few minutes’ boiling take out the material and rinse in cold water until it stops bleeding. When this is carefully done, good, even, and smooth shades will result.
Shaded Effects.—Of more real interest, although an abomination to most professional dyers, are the shaded effects. Instead of trying to get even, smooth colors, the cloth is intentionally dyed unevenly to get effects of light and shade in the color, otherwise impossible. This does not mean that a skein or piece of cloth badly dyed or discolored by some accident or carelessness should be proudly exhibited as a piece of really artistic dyeing, as is done occasionally, by some workers, with painful results. It is only when the work is done carefully and thoughtfully that shaded or so-called “rainbow” effects may be obtained upon skeins, basket materials, and cloth, which are distinctly interesting and beautiful, though very different from the regular work of the professional dyers.
Many methods of obtaining unique results in this work will occur to the student, after some practical experience. Perhaps the best way to begin is to take a piece of cheesecloth, cut in the form of a scarf—say two yards or so in length—and hemmed on both ends, if it is to be kept for exhibition or future use. Before it is wet, tie it in a rather tight knot in the middle, or, if the scarf is long enough, two knots about six or eight inches from each end. For this first piece tie a very simple knot by merely folding the scarf over on itself and pulling the goods tight. Then wet the cloth thoroughly and dye quickly in the boiling dye-liquor; rinse off, and untie the knots. The open part of the cloth will be found dyed the full strength, and where there were knots there will be shaded places varying from the full color down to white.
Another method is to take the wetted scarf in the middle and gradually lower the ends into the hot dye-liquor, stopping just before the middle reaches the dye. If carefully done this will give regularly shaded effects running from white or very light at the centre, to heavy, full shades at the ends. Of course, if preferred, the ends can be kept out of the dye-liquor and the middle portions immersed. This will give a scarf that is dark in the centre and light at each end—which is not so good a color arrangement, ordinarily, as the light centre and dark ends.
The same can be done with a square piece of cloth, well wetted: this will shade in an interesting manner, if held in the middle and dipped slowly and gradually. Further developments of this work, known as “Tied and Dyed Work,” are described in a following chapter.
Experiments with the Secondary Colors
After the above methods have been fairly mastered, the student should make some experiments in which two of the primary colors are mixed together, or better, superimposed one on the other to show the “secondary” shades produced by these combinations. This can be done by mixing the colors two by two, until three baths of green, violet, and orange respectively are formed as before. Then try dyeing first for even colors and later for the shaded effects.
The most interesting experiments in this line are made by the so-called “double shading” method. Here the same baths of straight primary colors—red and blue and yellow—should be used as in the earlier experiments; but the goods are first dyed in one bath, and then after-dyed or “topped” in a second color.
A scarf of cheesecloth is good for a first attempt. This, well wet, is held at one end and very slowly lowered into the hot bath, until all but about six inches of the entire length is immersed in the dye. This much is left free from color. Try a blue dye color for this series of shades, fading evenly and smoothly from the deepest full blue at one end to a pure white at the other.
After rinsing with water till the bleeding is over, reverse the scarf, holding it by the opposite end, and lower it slowly and gradually into a bath of, let us say, yellow, keeping about six inches out of the dye as before. This will produce a scarf shaded from clear blue at one end to clear yellow at the other end and showing the whole range of green shades produced by mixing these two colors, along its length.