Friday, September 13, 2024

Salt Dyeing

Firstly, the Disclaimer!
I am no expert on this....just listened to a lady explaining & demo-ing it and had a play at home.  This is really about the use of salt - not to explain anything about dyeing fabric.

I grabbed a bit of white fabric and washed/rinsed it in dishwashing liquid....because it was handy...use normal laundry liquid if you prefer - it's just to remove whatever is on the fabric.  Leave it wet.

Make up some coloured solution - Use dye if you have it - I used acrylic paint and added a drop of blue food colouring.  If you use acrylic paint - you may need to stir it very thoroughly or - as suggested by the lady demo-ing it - strain it - to remove any blobs of paint.

Soak the fabric in the solution.  Leave for as long as you need to to get the colour you want.  Remove - squeeze out the excess liquid and lay out - I put mine on baking (parchment) paper.

Now the fun part.
Sprinkle salt over the fabric....
I used Rock salt on the bottom area - ground rock salt on the top area
You can also use cooking salt, or Epsom salts.  I am sure salt flakes would be interesting too - I was just using what I had in my pantry for my test piece...but might buy some salt flakes for another time.  I also added Bicarb of Soda on the top...I wonder if it made a difference?

Because the salt draws in the colour - you get bigger "bubbles" from the rock salt than from table or cooking salt.  (Hence thinking that flakes would be good.)

Here is the side I put the salt on
Here is the "back".


I mean to turn this into an underwater scene....one day...


8 comments:

Helenchaffin said...

That is so neat! I'm going to have to check into salt dyeing!

Lin said...

Oh, very nice Susan. I have seen this done on paper but had not thought to try on fabric. Thank you, this is something I need to try. xx

kiwikid said...

That looks like an interesting thing to do!

Maria said...

Looks good. Could be a background for a Fish block

Janice said...

How interesting. It’s funny. I too thought of a fish block background. I’m sure you will have fun with it whatever you use it for. Are you doing any more?

Fiona said...

How fun.... didn't know you could use acrylic paint...
Hugz

loulee said...

That's neat. It would be great for an underwater scene.

ButterZ said...

That dyeing looks amazing. Have fun experimenting