Dye additives

Another thing I plan to test and measure are dyes additives, of which there are quite a few. The first is salt. The company I purchase the dyes from, Dharma Trading, sells Glauber's Salt, and they claim it will make black dye darker and turqoise dye deeper. I will test if this is true, and I will test if table salt works as well. Another additive is urea, which supposedly both makes the dyes stronger and improves the dyes ability to penetrate the fabric. Calsolene oil, another additive they sell, is also supposed to improve penetration. The style of tie dye I do most often, and which I'm pretty good at, is a controlled chaos called marbling. Either the urea and the calsolene oil could prove helpful with this technique. On the other hand, there are several additives they sell that are designed to thichen the dye to prevent it from running all over. The most common one is sodium alginate. I bought some and will test it soon in spirals and other patterns where I want to control where the dye goes.

Curing Comparison

Once the shirts (and other items) have been soaked and dyed they must sit for a while to let the colors stick, a process called curing. I intend to measure whether they need 2 hours, 8 hours, a day, 2 days, or more. I have a friend who insists that his shirts come out brighter if he leaves them in the sun or warms them in a cabinet he designed for that purpose, so I intend to test whether temperature is a factor as well.