Purples

Almost 2 weeks ago now, Annie was visiting and watching as I tried dyeing some purple fabrics. I mixed fuchsia and turquoise in different proportions, and this is what I got:

Pretty, but not exactly what I was going for. There are four separate pieces here, but all have some areas of a very muted purplish color with lots of turquoise markings and a few dark purple. I did some research and discovered that it is very difficult to get true purples from fuchsia and turquoise because the fuchsia dye strikes very fast (probably the fastest of all the dyes) and the turquoise strikes very slowly. So no matter how well the solution is mixed, the dye molecules are going to separate out as they encounter the resistance of the bunched and twisted fabric. So I ordered Grape dye, a pure color.

I also used less water to get darker, more intense color. The piece on the left had 2-3 times the amount of dye in 1/2 cup of water as the piece on the right.

At the same time, I dyed 2 pieces of cerulean blue using the same, more intense dye/water ratios.

And I dyed this piece, mixing grape and cerulean. I thought it would come out blue-violet, but it's more like indigo. I think of indigo as a dark blue, but in the rainbow, it's between blue and violet, so I guess it's right. Today I started some oranges and tans, and can't wait to see how they turn out. There's not going to be many good dyeing days left!