CHAPTER IV

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COLOR DYEING

Directly the student has mastered the instruction contained in the three previous chapters, and can use the dyeing apparatus and the unmixed dyestuffs so as to get reasonably fast colors on cotton and linen goods, it is time to attack the more difficult subject of dyeing to shade. This art is not an easy one, by any means, and only a few fundamental principles can be learned from a book. To make any real progress in it, constant and continuous practice is necessary; even then, unless the student is naturally gifted with an eye capable of readily detecting any changes of color, and has trained it to distinguish and identify the causes of such changes, little success in the matching of colors can be hoped for.

This does not mean, however, that unless a dyer can match shades perfectly, he cannot turn out very interesting and, indeed, beautiful results. But it does mean that he will find it difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce such results, and will be frequently handicapped in trying to utilize his dyeing skill and knowledge commercially.

The beginner thinks—not unnaturally perhaps—that in order to get any considerable variety of shades it is necessary to have on hand a large and varied assortment of dyestuffs; and it is consequently a surprise to find that skilled workers keep in stock chiefly a good supply of blue, yellow, and red only. Black is convenient and useful, but not essential, excepting for special purposes. By mixing these three “primary” colors it is possible to get every conceivable shade needed. And another point, which will be emphasized below and which is also likely to be a surprise, is that practically every pretty and agreeable shade, no matter how delicate, is composed of all three of these primary colors. Blue and yellow produce green, blue and red produce violet, and yellow and red produce orange, while the addition of the third or “complementary” color to any of these combinations of two makes _grey_, when all three colors are perfectly balanced, and when one color or another predominates, it is greyed and softened by the presence of small quantities of the other two.

Experiments with Single Colors

The way to study color dyeing is, first of all, to get a clear idea of the effect of different strengths of each of these three primary colors in producing both light and dark shades of a single color. This can be easily accomplished with the red, blue, and yellow of the Salt dyes described in the last chapter. Dissolve each color separately and keep them in separate dye-pots so that you can readily dye pieces of cheesecloth or other cheap, easy-dyeing materials any light, medium, or dark shade, to serve as a basis for future comparisons.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF PRIMARY COLORS

Two color shades—Red + Blue = Violet Red + Yellow = Orange Yellow + Blue = Green

Complementary colors—Red + Blue + Yellow = Grey Red + Green = } Blue + Orange = } Grey Yellow + Violet = }]

_Even Dyeing._—First wet the cloth or yarn thoroughly by soaking in hot water, then rinse well and wring it dry—if necessary, using a wringer. The dyestuff should already be carefully dissolved in a little boiling water. Pour some of this solution (not too much, for the shades should all be pretty light) into the dye-pot half full of lukewarm water. Then quickly and wholly immerse the wet material, stirring and working about with the dye-sticks, and let the whole heat steadily until it boils. After a few minutes’ boiling take out the material and rinse in cold water until it stops bleeding. When this is carefully done, good, even, and smooth shades will result.

_Shaded Effects._—Of more real interest, although an abomination to most professional dyers, are the shaded effects. Instead of trying to get even, smooth colors, the cloth is intentionally dyed unevenly to get effects of light and shade in the color, otherwise impossible. This does not mean that a skein or piece of cloth badly dyed or discolored by some accident or carelessness should be proudly exhibited as a piece of really artistic dyeing, as is done occasionally, by some workers, with painful results. It is only when the work is done carefully and thoughtfully that shaded or so-called “rainbow” effects may be obtained upon skeins, basket materials, and cloth, which are distinctly interesting and beautiful, though very different from the regular work of the professional dyers.

Many methods of obtaining unique results in this work will occur to the student, after some practical experience. Perhaps the best way to begin is to take a piece of cheesecloth, cut in the form of a scarf—say two yards or so in length—and hemmed on both ends, if it is to be kept for exhibition or future use. Before it is wet, tie it in a rather tight knot in the middle, or, if the scarf is long enough, two knots about six or eight inches from each end. For this first piece tie a very simple knot by merely folding the scarf over on itself and pulling the goods tight. Then wet the cloth thoroughly and dye quickly in the boiling dye-liquor; rinse off, and untie the knots. The open part of the cloth will be found dyed the full strength, and where there were knots there will be shaded places varying from the full color down to white.

Another method is to take the wetted scarf in the middle and gradually lower the ends into the hot dye-liquor, stopping just before the middle reaches the dye. If carefully done this will give regularly shaded effects running from white or very light at the centre, to heavy, full shades at the ends. Of course, if preferred, the ends can be kept out of the dye-liquor and the middle portions immersed. This will give a scarf that is dark in the centre and light at each end—which is not so good a color arrangement, ordinarily, as the light centre and dark ends.

The same can be done with a square piece of cloth, well wetted: this will shade in an interesting manner, if held in the middle and dipped slowly and gradually. Further developments of this work, known as “Tied and Dyed Work,” are described in a following chapter.

Experiments with the Secondary Colors

After the above methods have been fairly mastered, the student should make some experiments in which two of the primary colors are mixed together, or better, superimposed one on the other to show the “secondary” shades produced by these combinations. This can be done by mixing the colors two by two, until three baths of green, violet, and orange respectively are formed as before. Then try dyeing first for even colors and later for the shaded effects.

The most interesting experiments in this line are made by the so-called “double shading” method. Here the same baths of straight primary colors—red and blue and yellow—should be used as in the earlier experiments; but the goods are first dyed in one bath, and then after-dyed or “topped” in a second color.

A scarf of cheesecloth is good for a first attempt. This, well wet, is held at one end and very slowly lowered into the hot bath, until all but about six inches of the entire length is immersed in the dye. This much is left free from color. Try a blue dye color for this series of shades, fading evenly and smoothly from the deepest full blue at one end to a pure white at the other.

After rinsing with water till the bleeding is over, reverse the scarf, holding it by the opposite end, and lower it slowly and gradually into a bath of, let us say, yellow, keeping about six inches out of the dye as before. This will produce a scarf shaded from clear blue at one end to clear yellow at the other end and showing the whole range of green shades produced by mixing these two colors, along its length.

Similar tests made with red and blue, and then with red and yellow, will emphasize to the student’s mind the fact that green is formed from blue and yellow; violet from red and blue; and orange from red and yellow; and that each combination gives an infinite variety of intermediate shades, according to the comparative strength of the individual dyes.

Matching Colors

The next step is to dye some pieces evenly with green, violet, and orange, made by two of the primary colors, and then to try matching these with fresh, newly-mixed baths of the same dyes. It will be found here that success depends upon going slowly; and upon beginning with light shades and building the color up to the desired strength carefully, by means of successive dippings. Note that the color of cloth when wet is much darker than when dry. Some dyers hold the wet cloth to the bright sky and look through it, to get an idea of what the finished color will be like; but positively certain and satisfactory results are arrived at only by wetting the sample to be matched or drying the piece that is being dyed, so that both sample and piece are equally wet or dry, while their color is being compared.

The real difficulty of color dyeing is not met with until the student tries to obtain shades embodying all three of the primary colors. A very few experiments will quickly show that with most modern dyestuffs it is hard to get soft, pleasant tones with the use of only two colors. Natural colors, as we find them in the sky, water, meadow, and woodlands, are never pure; they are invariably mixed. And our eyes are so accustomed to them that shades dyed with simple or pure colors look hard, cold, and inharmonious. Mixtures of two colors are better and softer than single colors, but still rather hard. But when the secondary shade resulting from the combination of two primary colors is mixed with even a small quantity of the third primary color, the result is invariably a soft and pleasing tone.

The above statements presuppose that it is possible, in practice, to obtain good dyestuffs in each class, which are absolutely pure, clean shades of blue, yellow, and red without any admixture whatever. As a matter of fact, while the artificial dyestuffs are much more pure, and hence much more hard and brilliant than the best natural colors, they still in many, if not indeed, in most cases, when carefully studied, show shades that are mixed and not pure. It is very rare to find a blue that does not incline a little to the yellow (a Blue G as it would probably be labelled) or else contain a trace of violet or red (Blue R, or RR). The reds are almost invariably either scarlets, containing a trace of yellow, or crimsons containing blue. And the yellows, also, are very apt to tend towards orange or occasionally show a trace of green.

This, of course, complicates the problem for the practical dyer greatly, and means that instead of being able to cover the whole range of shades with a red, blue, and yellow, it is frequently, if not always, necessary to have some mixed colors, giving sharp, clear shades of violet, green, and orange respectively, to obtain certain effects.

The following diagram will perhaps make this more clear. In this the three primary colors have been divided, each into two shades as indicated by the shade letters, R meaning red, B blue, and G yellow (German _gelb_) shades of the colors. By combining these colors as shown in the table, clean, clear shades will be given, whereas other combinations would be likely to spoil the shades.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF MIXED COLORS

Red B + Blue R = Violet Blue R + Red B = Violet Yellow R + Red G = Orange

Red B + Orange = Red G Blue R + Green = Blue G Yellow R + Green = Yellow G

Red G + Yellow R = Orange Blue G + Violet = Blue R Yellow B + Orange = Yellow R

Red G + Violet = Red B Blue G + Yellow B = Green Yellow B + Blue G = Green]

Take, for example, a special case, namely to turn a piece of crimson calico into a full rich scarlet. The crimson color contains a great deal of red, mixed with a little blue. If the piece were after-dyed, or “topped,” with yellow, even in small quantities, the result would probably be “muddy,” the yellow and blue together being in such strength as to seriously diminish the strength of the red, and make it more or less brown in shade.

If, however, a reddish shade of orange were used for shading, instead of yellow, the red of the mixture would be constantly increased, while the yellow was “killing” the blue, i.e., turning it, with a little red, into grey; and before long the crimson, or bluish shade of red, would turn first into a true but softened red, with neither blue nor yellow predominating, and finally into a scarlet, with distinct traces of yellow.

In making these Three-color Shades, therefore, the component parts of each dyestuff used must be studied; and in every case care must be taken to have the third color, whatever it is, added in such minute quantities as only to _soften_ and not to spoil the first shade. A teaspoonful, sometimes even a few drops of a solution of one strong color, will generally be enough to soften, and take the edge off, some gallons of dye-liquor containing a hard, clear mixture of the other two. A cupful, on the other hand, or even two or three tablespoonfuls might utterly spoil the bath and turn it into “mud,” as a dyer would say.

It is worth mentioning here that, as a general thing, it is distinctly more interesting to build up shades by dipping first in one bath, and then topping with the second and the third color than it is to mix the different colors to the desired shade first and then dye the material in the single bath. On a small scale there is the same difference, although not so marked and less easily noticed, as that between even dyeing and rainbow dyeing. There is often a loss in regularity and evenness, but the gain in life and light when one color shines through another which covers it more than compensates. This overlaying is not so perceptible in the even dyeing of fine, thin materials, whether yarn or cloth; but with coarse, heavy yarns and thick textiles, effects can be obtained by after-dyeing which cannot be approached when the goods are dyed in one bath.

_Matching Shades._—Some people, I believe, go so far as to say that, in order to be really expert at true shade matching when using the three colors in dyeing, a dyer must have begun to learn the art in the person of his grandfather, ninety or a hundred years ago, and kept in practise ever since.

It certainly is true that heredity and early training both have a great deal to do with skill in this art, and a good color dyer will show an almost uncanny instinct, as he instantly picks out differences in shade which an untrained eye would never notice, and without any hesitation prescribes the exact remedy for the defect. Still there are plenty of good, even first-class dyers, nowadays, who have learned their art quite late in life, with the aid of a good eye and intelligent perseverance.

The chief rule to remember is this: Red, blue, and yellow, when mixed in equal strength, make a neutral grey or black. Accordingly any one color will form grey or, as we may say, will _neutralize_, or be _complementary_ to a mixture of the other two. Thus red will form grey with green; blue with orange, and yellow with violet. Accordingly if there is too much red in the dye-bath, it can be killed by the addition of a little green; and vice versa. The same is true with the other complementary colors. If this simple rule be kept clearly in mind, most of the problems of matching colors and of getting pleasant and harmonious shades can be worked out easily. It is chiefly a matter of practice, and perseverance.

The student is strongly advised to attack this study in three ways:

First, mix the three primary colors together in one bath, to form definite shades—grey, brown, olive green, steel blue, etc.; then dye the cloth in the bath to see how the colors look when on the materials and dried.

Second, to dye a piece of cloth one mixed shade and by topping with other colors, to alter that shade to match some shade previously selected. For instance, dye a piece a good shade of reddish or copper brown, and then try to “kill” the red in it without materially deepening the shade, i.e., change it from a copper brown to a greyish or dirt brown of about the same depth of color.

Very pretty and instructive experiments can be made along this line of building up soft grey shades, by dyeing the cloth successively in weak baths of the three primary colors. As fast as one color predominates, it can be killed by dipping into successive baths of the other two.

Attractive scarfs and table covers can be made with a little care, by knotting the material and dyeing light rainbow shades of the three colors, one after the other, changing the knots or tied portions after each bath. Properly done, this will produce remarkably interesting, opalescent effects, each color being toned and softened by the other two, although predominating in different parts of the material.

When, in the operation of rainbow dyeing, strongly contrasting colors have been used with unhappy results (such as the red, yellow, and blue tri-color effects that some students will produce) try the effects of toning, or “covering,” as it is often called, with some soft, neutral color which combines in itself all the contrasting tones, or else with a color that is complementary to the most obnoxious one, softening that one and strengthening the weaker shades. Grey, of course, can be used for this; but in general, a soft shade of brown will be found very valuable for taking the edge off of too violent contrasts. The permanganate brown (Manganese bronze), described in the first chapter, can be used with advantage for this purpose.

It is not difficult for a skilful dyer to match any desired shade by using three complementary colors, red, blue, and yellow, provided, of course, that these are pure and unmixed. It often happens, however, that after matching carefully a soft mixed shade by daylight, the colors appear entirely different when viewed by artificial light, and especially by ordinary gaslight. Daylight, as we are accustomed to it, is comparatively evenly balanced in color, is in fact a white light. But artificial light as a rule is distinctly colored, and it is difficult, though now not impossible, to find a light that so closely resembles daylight that colors can be matched at night.

If the light, for instance, has a bluish tinge, like some kinds of electric light, it will kill the corresponding orange in a shade, while yellow light, such as commonly results from the use of oil, candles, or gas (less marked when incandescent mantles are used), dulls and even blackens lavender, violet, and purple shades, while having little or no effect upon yellow, orange, and green.

It is therefore advisable when matching shades that are to be used at night not to use three-color shades wherever that is possible, but to get the desired soft effects by covering directly with grey (i.e., light shades of black) on top of a single or two-color shade.