Mixing the Dyes From the Wooly Mason Jar

Mixing the dyes.


Lucy (The Wooly Mason Jar Goddess) has made such an amazing dye system with the colour cards you see above, and exact dye to fabric measurements by weight...I am hoping that I will be able to mix dye lots so similar I no longer have customers asking why it is lighter, or darker...or whatever the old dyes decided to do on any given day.

Here I am measuring 1.00 g of primary yellow with 0.10 g of chocolate brown, into 1 C hot water. These are mixed in a mason jar where I label them and they will live for future use.

Lucy sent the little gram scale, measuring trays, awesome spoons, dyes, colour cards, citric acid, and a little bottle of Synthropol with the kit...and it was Well worth it!! Everything I needed to get started...

I mixed the 3 Primary colours, and then Black, Charcoal, and Grey.

Dying some silks

As a trial, I wanted to do two values each in a blue, and purple...with Lucy's microwave method to see how it would work with silk.

First soaking the silk (had already been washed in non-detergent soap.

Adding the amount of dye needed for 10 g fabric to a jar of warm water to get the value I wanted the silk to be (all on the colour cards)

Dunking the silk into the dye water...pressing out as many air bubbles as possible, and letting it sit for a while.

Then I popped it in the microwave for 5 minutes, and...Hahaha, I don't think jars will work for silk

So I switched it to a casserole dish and put it back in for another 5 minutes. Added 3 teaspoons of citric acid melted into some warm water...and it came out Beautiful!!

Then I started playing, mixing the purple from the card directions...and this time I only used the casserole dish. It worked beautifully.

Notes to Self

The microwave method will work beautifully if I have a custom silk order, or just want to play with new colours, multi colours, or smaller swatches of wool.

When dying 10 plus silks in one colour for the shop, I think using a pot will work best.

And I LOVE these dyes, as well as the system Lucy put together, I am very grateful I found her!!! :)

Edit - Lucy said she puts it in the microwave for 2 minutes, not 5. Not sure why I have 5 in my mind but next time I will try 2... :)

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed...

This is a Steemit original, all words and photos by Elew