It would not be possible to give weights and measures of the different colours, as such specks of colour will change the tone, but any one wanting to mix colours for matching will find that it takes very little time to get a colour once he has decided what the nearest colour is, on the colour chart. By studying this, it is easy to find out what colour should be added to produce any given shade.
MATCHING COLOURS
The most difficult problem in dyeing is the matching of colours when the materials are different. For instance it is not easy, on account of the difference in surface, to match a charmeuse to a given plush or velvet.
For beginners it is always best to start experimental dyeing by daylight, unless one has a very white light, as the yellow of artificial light takes all, or very nearly all the yellow out of a colour, with the result that where one at night has a beautiful blue, this blue will turn to green in the daytime and lavender will invariably turn grey.
COLOUR RELATION
Yellow is sometimes rather a difficult colour to manage, that is to say that if, in a batik the original white of the material is to be used as a background for a design in yellow, it will be very difficult to see where the white finishes and the yellow of the decoration begins. While the material is wet the design will show, but when it is dry, by some mysterious trick of the eye, it has apparently vanished; it is therefore advisable to use a second colour to offset either the white or the yellow.
If, however, a second colour is not desired in the batik and consequently have nothing to offset the yellow, the following hint will save the situation; a little blue or a little red, mixed with the yellow solution, will enable the yellow to hold its own on the white ground. The slightest touch of either of these colours will have the desired effect.
When the colour scheme calls for a yellow and a blue as separate colour units in the design, and the blue is wanted after the yellow dipping, the effect of the yellow on the blue (which produces green) can be diminished by dyeing first, a very weak solution of magenta, over the yellow. Rinse the material thoroughly, then proceed to dip in the blue dye-bath. In doing this, it is necessary to be very careful with the magenta, as it is a very strong colour and an overdose will be liable to produce a purple instead of a blue. Of course, if the original yellow is very intense it is not possible to neutralize it in this way and the bleaching process will have to be used, in order to obtain the blue.
Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3
SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE MAKING OF A BATIK