Quote Originally Posted by rookie View Post
Awhile back, Jeff Hamm posted on dying with veggies, fruits and such. I had been wanting to try mortar dye and finally got around to it. .....then ten more minutes with two teaspoons of [b]vinegar[/n] for the set.
To prevent confusion, do you mean powders that are used to color concrete mortar - mortar dye; or mordant dye, which is a dye that uses a mordant to set the dye. For example, Rit Dye.

The reason I ask is that you say you use vinegar to set the dye and vinegar is not a true mordant. Vinegar adjusts the pH and can affect color, but does not actually combine with the dye to fix it. So vinegar does not set the dye. You should try it with powdered alum next time to see if you get a better color fix.

Non mordant dyes actually combine with the protein in the fiber and do not need mordants.

When I dye, I want reproduceable results so I use Rit dye. Some people use Koolaid. I've found that true black is the most difficult color. Wood duck yellow is also difficult unless you have picric acid which is explosive. Now I just buy my dubbing.

It is fun to experiment though.

http://www.greatvistachemicals.com/d...rdant_dye.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordant

http://books.google.com/books?id=DLl...esult&resnum=2