Flying Colours

My very first attempt to dye some pieces of mohair was way back in 2012. (You may click here to read on the previous post: http://waynestonbears.blogspot.sg/search/label/hand%20dyeing)

This time, I wanted to create a very special and unique Bear to celebrate Singapore's birthday which will be held on 9 August 2015. Hence, I searched my drawers to see what colour dyes I have remaining in order to create a special red coloured fur.

I had a chat with my friend Joanne Livingston who is a very experienced Bear maker and she shared her hand dyeing experience which she had done previously.

L-R: Bake King Dye and Kool-Aid

On hand, I had some packets of colourful Kool-aid (flavoured drink mix) which is very popular in the US. In fact, I have not even tried one before!

However, I was also looking for other alternatives to dye my white fur.

Joanne brilliantly suggested that I try using the red dye which is used for festive occasions in Singapore. We use these food colourings for Easter and birthday eggs. As they are meant to be edible, they are generally safe and does not deteriorate the fur.

Dyeing white mohair

As I had some free time on Monday, I decided to experiment with the dyes I have; Kool-Aid (Cherry) and Bake King Dye (Cherry Red).

First, I boiled a pot of water and dissolved the dye, salt and vinegar with a few stirs. Then, I immersed a piece of mohair completely into the pot and continued stirring. I ensured that the surface of the mohair was completely soaked in the mixture, turning and stirring the piece of mohair until the coloured water turns pale which meant that the colour was absorbed completely.

Measuring amount of water

Adding in dye

Adding in salt

Adding in vinegar

Stirring while hot!

Flip the mohair while stirring to ensure all mohair are soaked in the dye

After 20 minutes, I removed the mohair from the pot and placed it into a washing tub. To remove the vinegar smell and soften the mohair, I washed it with shampoo followed by conditioner.

Washing with shampoo and conditioner to make the mohair soft!

On my 1st attempt, I experimented with the following mixure: One piece of 1/4m white mohair, 48Oz of water, 1 teaspoon of cherry red Bake King dye, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of white vinegar The outcome of the first piece of mohair appeared to be bright cherry red! It's really beautiful however, it wasn't the colour which I wanted.

On my 2nd attempt, I used the following formulation to achieve a darker tone of red:
One piece of 1/4m white mohair, 64Oz of water, 5 teaspoon of cherry red Bake King dye, 4 teaspoons of salt and 4 teaspoons of white vinegar.

The outcome was turned out really well! I got a piece of striking red mohair!

On my 3rd attempt, I tried using a packet of cherry kool aid in the mixture.
One piece of 1/8m white mohair, 32Oz of water, 1 packet of cherry kool aid, 5 teaspoons of salt and 5 teaspoons of white vinegar.

Turned out that I got myself a piece of warm orange-red mohair which wasn't too bad!

L-R: Cherry (Kool Aid), Darker Cherry Red and Pink Cherry (Bake King Dye)

I really enjoyed myself and I am very thankful to my dad for helping me as well! I am going do more experiments with other dyes in future.

Hope you like what we shared today. Do go ahead and try dyeing some fur yourself. It's really interesting and fun!

Cheers, Wayne

Dragon, Garnie Smith

Garnie Smith is the botanical name for green apple, hence this is how this dragon gets his unique name.

Garnie Smith is final work from the outcome of my hand dyed mohair. He is dyed green using a piece of white mohair. If you look carefully, his backing is still white whereas the fur is green. This gives him an interesting combination and contrast. I am really happy with his final outcome.

I have listed Garnie Smith on Bear Pile. You may find more information about him one BearPile.
Thank you for visiting us today, have a wonderful week ahead! =)

Hugs,
Wayne

What a Colourful Day!

Last year my friend Janice, sent me some Cushing Prefection Dyes to try. Janice plays with lots of colour dyes to make her bear's colour unique, and they are very popular. I have always wanted to try this out and finally yesterday night, I took some courage and thrown in a few pieces of mohair to experiment and play with.

Have you ever felt bored making the same bears with the same coloured fabric because you ordered a large quantity of it? Then you should really consider to dye them! I wanted to make a few new dragons for Melbourne show but is running out of ideas and thought that it would be wonderful to have a few colourful dragons for the show.

Cushing's Prefection Dyes

Washing mohair before hand dye, this yellow mohair is going into the blue dye

As following to the instructions, I washed the mohair with water and detergent. Next, I prepared a pot of boiling water (pot generously contributed by my mum), and I add in a small amount of colour dye (powder form) with a few tea spoons of vinegar. I am not really sure what is the purpose of adding vinegar but I think the more you add, the better for the dye to be absorbed by the mohair.

Dark Blue Dye

After dye, the colour lightens

Next dyeing pink and white mohair. Going into yellow dye

Add some dye into the boiling water

Add vinegar and boils the water. When it's boiling you can start putting in the mohair

When the water is boiling, slowly put in pieces of your mohair. Let it soak for approximately 15 mins, as it absorbs the dye, slowly use a pair of long wooden chopsticks to flip and turn the fabric making sure all surface area are soaked in the dye.

Last piece of white going into green dye

Make sure it's fully emerged into the dye

Findings....
1) Initially the pot of dye is dark coloured, after the mohair absorbs the dye, the pot of dye will become lighter and clear.
2) Some of the mohair backing doesn't absorb and dye as well as the fur. The fur are fully dyed but not the backing, hence if you are considering dyeing coloured mohair (Pink, yellow, blue etc) into other colours, be prepared that you might get fur dyed and the backing remains the original colour. However, I find this result interesting as well, you can experiment to get the fur and backing with different colour combination. This makes your bears unique! =)
3) The first piece of yellow when dyed to blue, it becomes greenish blue (Cyan) in colour instead of blue. Lesson learnt is that alway keep in mind of the colour wheel, yellow plus blue gives you cyan that makes sense!
4) Wash the mohair once you completed the dyeing process with water to remove the vinegar smell.

Air dry the mohair and almost ready to use!

I am really happy with the results and I can't wait to make something soon. It's very easy and fun as well, I would definitely try this again soon =)

Tata! Really nice colours! I am so excited to make something new with them =)