Acid Dye
at massey university
What is Acid dye?
Acid dyes are applied to protein fibres such as silk, wool, feathers mohair etc. They can also be used to dye nylon which is chemically similar to silk.
The imagery below and the the left has been taken by Petra Scheuber, it shows my small scale dye samples in colour order.
Acid dye is a low risk option of chemical dye, and can be sourced for households. Acid dye is typically used with white vinegar to create a low PH acidic dye bath, hence giving it the name ‘acid’. This low PH allows the dye to bond with the fibres inside and out, creating a rich colour. Acid dye is extremely brilliant and colourfast, allowing colours vibrancy to dominate the chosen fibre.
There is a wide range of colours available for acid dyers, but the classic option it to get your blues, red and yellows to start your own colour mixing. Each acid dye powder can be stretched over a large amount of water. I used 1g per 100ml to keep my colours as vibrant as possible. The more water ratio to dye powder means more saturation of the original hue.
To the right is an image of my acid dye at a large scale (600g hanks of yarn), dyed using my vastly tested orange dye recipes. The orange was the hardest to work with as it had three different powders at different ratios for each shade of orange i wished to achieve. This resulted in higher risk factors of the colours turning out completely different each time. By mixing up the large scale dye liquor all together and then separating it out into different dye baths, turned out to be a must more efficient method in getting even colour results.
Below is imagery of my acid dye process upscaled to 12litre pots and 48litre Winch machine. This was a challenging process as dye is very risky in terms to colour accuracy each time. The result were worth the challenge!
