Batik and other pattern dyeing

by Walter Davis Baker; Ida Strawn Baker

For the “dye-vat,” or container for the dye-bath, use preferably a large graniteware pan or stone jar. Metal dishes, especially iron, are sometimes injurious. Professional dyers often use vats of copper, brass or wood.

Soft water is preferable, and it should be free of sediment. The presence of iron in water is most injurious as it dulls, or “saddens,” the shade of most colors. A hard water containing lime should be purified or softened. Lime sometimes causes uneven dyeing.

The dye must be completely dissolved in the water. If specks of undissolved dye are present there will be a spotted uneven dyeing. It is best to dissolve the dye in a small amount of water in a separate dish and then strain it. This should be added to the dye-bath a portion at a time during the dyeing. The reason for this will appear later.

The temperature of the dye-bath has much to do with the dyeing. There is no general rule applicable to all dyes. Each dye is usually accompanied by directions as to the temperature to be used. In general it may be said that all dyes work better in warm or hot solution. Some dyes require prolonged boiling; in other cases boiling is positively injurious to the dye. Sometimes a definite temperature below the boiling point must be maintained. Sometimes the temperature is raised or lowered during the dyeing. In all cases the temperature should be kept the same in the different parts of the bath, otherwise the dyeing will be uneven.

Many dyes, while most successful at high temperature, work very well in moderately warm, or even cold solution. This is of very great advantage in pattern dyeing, as in batik work, where the wax forbids a high temperature.

The composition of the dye-bath is not often as simple as we have indicated. Usually the dyer adds one or more other chemicals to assist in dissolving the dye, to control the rate of absorption of the dye by the fabric, or for some other purpose.

Some of the finest dyeing is done in baths so complex and with operations so exacting in care that only the trained professional with his elaborate equipment is able to undertake it.

3. The Handling of the Fabric in the Dye-Bath. Since all parts of the fabric must have equal opportunity to be dyed, in order that a level dyeing be obtained, it is absolutely necessary that the goods be worked as long as they remain in the dye-bath. This working must be thorough and continuous without interruption. This cannot be emphasized too much.

Let us think what happens if this rule is not heeded and the goods stand a few minutes in the bath. Some parts of the fabric will lie inside the folds of other parts and, having access to only a small part of the dye-bath, will soon exhaust all of the dye available, a condition known as “local exhaustion.” Meanwhile other parts of the fabric more favorably situated will continue to absorb dye. More uneven dyeing in schools and homes is due perhaps to this cause than to any other.

Constant working of the goods keeps the dye that yet remains in solution uniformly distributed in the bath so that all parts of the fabric are absorbing dye alike. It also maintains what is equally essential to level dyeing, a uniform temperature in all parts of the bath.