Thread: dying silk with kool aid

anyone ever tried it?
I'm going to next weekend!
what do we think?
Dyeing Protein Fibers with Kool-Aid: Basic Howto

the ones i've seen didn't have the depth of color i like in fabrics............more muted/light, and kinda bright-ish when it comes to shade.........they won't get very dark, so if you're looking for a 'wash' type effect, it would work great

I used to dye my hair with kool aid when I was younger. I did red streaks to piss my parents off. The color never held for long, though.
:-)

Ditto. What i did learn, that applies to most dyes I have used, is more heat = much darker color. And with manic panic I learned what stays on my hair for a week stays in the towels for months...ooops.

good luck with koolade silk dying. Post pctures of the results.

Originally Posted by SummerSahar

I used to dye my hair with kool aid when I was younger. I did red streaks to piss my parents off. The color never held for long, though.
:-)

thanks ladies-
I plan to do a test run. I bought acid dyes in blue and blue kool aid and plan to go through the same technique with both and see if they are similar. I am going to boil the water on the stove and use vinegar so hopefully it will provide pleasing results because its much quicker to run to walmart and buy 4 packs of kool aid than it is to wait for someone to ship acid dyes to your house!

Originally Posted by jenlindseys

thanks ladies-
I plan to do a test run. I bought acid dyes in blue and blue kool aid and plan to go through the same technique with both and see if they are similar. I am going to boil the water on the stove and use vinegar so hopefully it will provide pleasing results because its much quicker to run to walmart and buy 4 packs of kool aid than it is to wait for someone to ship acid dyes to your house!

You might want to research the effects of boiling silk before doing it (the website you posted said simmer, not boil). The temp of boiling water might be enough to dismantle the silk's protein and ruin the integrity of the veil. I think a dip in boiling water is used to initially break apart the silkworm cocoon to get silk fibers in the first place, but I'm not sure if a second boil or a boil for a longer time period would destroy your precious prop!

Yeah, thanks summer~ I def. won't boil....sounds like it could be dangerous.

It might be ok, but best to check it out. Good luck, and post pics when you're done! Kook aid might be the next best thing to acid dying, and I've got a white silk veil that's begging me to do something with it!

Kool!
I love this idea!
Let me know how this comes out.

I have boiled the dye bath for silk in the past (accidentally, not on purpose), and from what I can tell, there were no ill effects. I also managed to burn holes in silk while putting it in the pot because I am very clumsy and have a bit of a mad scientist gene ;-)

I have seen coolaid dyeing done on wool yarn - and I wasn't too impressed with the colors, as I recall, it was more Easter hues.

hmmm! I will def. start with a small piece of material to make sure its the color I'm looking for. I will let you know how it goes :)

No, boiling won't harm silk. Many of the silk dyes require steaming which would be at or over boiling temps.

Now, chlorine bleach, on the other hand, will definitely dissolve silk proteins. Yep, learned that the hard way once.

Sedonia

haha Thanks for that input! step away from the bleach! were you trying to make the color lighter or something?

Yes, it was when I first started trying to dye fabrics. I had a royal purple silk blouse and i decided that if I bleached out the color I could try to dye with some of the new dyes I had purchased. So in it goes to the washing machine with a generous glugging of Clorox, and when the cycle was done, I was quite surprised to find my blouse had disintigrated into dime-sized pieces!

Originally Posted by jenlindseys

haha Thanks for that input! step away from the bleach! were you trying to make the color lighter or something?

haha, sounds like something I would do if I dyed it too dark or something.
I'm thinking about dying the silk all one color and then doing silk painting in a darker color over top of that.

i did it! and it worked! it was really weird though, the color soaked up into the silk really quick.....like in 30 seconds! will post more details later and hopefully pictures....used bluerasperry lemonade