Last of the dying days!

These are the Jacquard Silk Dyes and the tools I used to dye much of the lace. It is ready to use and you just mix the colors the way you want them to be and add water to make it lighter or don't and it is dark. It came with a resist which I tried once without great results. It also came with a solution that you mix with water and then soak your died materials in for 5 minutes to set the die. This says it causes cancer in lab rats in California. I avoided dying lab rats and wore gloves myself. Really handy for this task were:

1. the dyes (-:

2. a couple of plastic containers with water in them (one for rinsing the brush and one kept clean to add water to lighten the color of the dye)

3. Several eyedroppers - one for each color

4. Several small containers - I bought jars for this purpose, but found using the lids worked best (Shari's idea)

5. tweezers to move the soggy died pieces around

6. Drying rack

7. lot's of paper towels

8. Larger plastic container for rinsing in the setting solution.

9. Brushes - I used some I got at goodwill that were designed for some other purpose I can't remember now. I liked them because they are stiff and you can't shove the dye in where it doesn't want to go.

It is really hard to paint an item just the way you want it because the dye tends to run, especially when the fabric/lace gets wet, which it does. I got really good at making my mistakes look like they were on purpose! Better just to let them run! (Shari, you will notice some of the butterflies and flowers that you gave me in the first photo. I will trade you many more shells for some more roses. (-: ) I liked using several colors to add shading. I liked having both the Jacquard Acid dyes for the larger items and the silk dyes for the smaller items. Some materials couldn't be dyed by either, so it was nice to have the paints too.