Cool off with ICE DYEING by Tamara

Hope you all are enjoying the summer heat!

In this blog post I want to share with you how to do ice dyeing with Colourcraft's procion dyes!

There are many different ways to dye fabric with procion dyes. This one is fun and easy and you get beautiful and unexpected results.

Check out the video with an overview of the process here:

First a little health and safety information- please read all information that comes with these chemicals. It's especially important to keep any equipment you use for dying only (do NOT reuse for food), a dust mask is really good idea when dealing with powdered chemicals, and gloves! Please use gloves.

Ok...on to the fun part!

Procion dyes are used for cellulose based fabrics. I used 100% cotton that had been prewashed (ok old sheets).

First I mixed the fixer according to the directions (I used 40g fixer and 2 liters hot water), then I soaked my fabrics for a few minutes.

I use some old crates(upside down) that are holey to hold my fabrics. Basically you need something that holds your fabric up, but lets the water run through. An old baking dish and rack can also work really well. I had mine out on the grass, but if you don't want dye on your lawn or are dyeing elsewhere, it's good to have a container to catch your dye.

I squeezed out the extra solution from my fabrics and arranged them onto the crates. You want to have as much of the surface exposed really, but having your fabric crinkled is part of what gives such interesting effects.

I then covered my fabrics with a layer of ice. I had bought a bag from the supermarket- different types of cubes and crushed ice can give different effects- snow works in the winter!

I selected my colors and sprinkled the powders over the ice. I wanted one batch to be colors that are next to each other on the color wheel to show how they can blend into other colors as they melt.

A few specks of the red violet blew over into the other fabrics, but that just makes the final result more interesting.

Now its just to wait for the ice to melt!

When the ice was melted I covered the fabrics with plastic and let them sit a few more hours to make sure the dyes really set into the fabric, then I rinsed out and washed in my washing machine.

Final results:

You can see for yourself all the beautiful effects this techniques give! I was extremely impressed with the brightness of Colourcraft's dyes as well. I will be using these in future projects. 

Hope you enjoyed today's blog, see you soon.

Procion dye starter kit