I ordered a sample pack from Wingham Wool Work with a yellow, red, blue, green, black and a purplish hot pink. They came in little "hard to manage with gloves" plastic bags, with instructions and a pair of flimsy gloves that was usable one time.
The "colours" of the dyes are fantastic, bright and strong, but you do NOT need to use as much as it says in the instructions. They are blend-able, but the colours are strong and you can see by the palette of the finished roving (in this case) what hues was used. They also say that no acid is needed, only when dyeing silk and to exhaust the bath, but I find that the wool takes the dye better and faster if I add a little acid (ättika).
When using the "plastic wrap burrito method", I get good results, I steam the rolls and let them cool down and then the dye is almost always totally exhausted.
I am wondering though if it would be more economical to choose another brand, since these dyes are quite bulky, you get 1 kg of dyed fiber with 100 g of dye, and I have seen other brands where you get 10 kg dyed fiber from 100 g. But maybe then there is more work with mordants and acids involved. If you have any insights in this feel free to comment.
I also love Landscape dyes and started with the sample pack from Winghams, they are lovely dyes and very easy to use, the colour range is so good as well. I have bought a couple of the tubs which have lasted ages, although I am probably not using them to the strength they suggest, I tend to dissolve a teaspoon of dye in hot water in an old jam jar and then add water to fill about half the jar. If I decide I want a stronger colour I just add a bit more dye - it is not very scientific! However, they do seem expensive if you compare them to some of the other dyes on the market.
ReplyDeleteSo far I have tried the Eurolan dyes from World of Wool. These produced very strong colours and I felt they didn't suit the "plastic wrap burrito method" they didn't seem to exhaust very well (it took ages for the dye to rinse out) They may suit a different method of dying but and I wouldn't go for them again. Also there wasn't a huge range of colors.
I have also tried Omega dyes, these were similar to Landscape (except the range of colours isn't as wide) they were easy to use and I had no problem with them. I bought small amounts so am not sure how they compare in terms of cost to Landscape.
I am about to try so dyes from a shop called Tall Yarns 'n Tales
http://tallyarns.co.uk/shop/dyes-and-dye-kits/
I liked the colours of these - but looking at the price of the 100g tubs these are even more expensive than Landscape!
My wish would be that the Landscape dyes came in smaller tubs (maybe half the size) so that I could build up a nice collection of colours!
Hope this helps, Sarah
Thank you Sarah!
ReplyDeleteThat really helps! Wow, you really have experimented. I feel a lot better in my choice of landscape now. Thats good too, because I orded a few of the big tubs. It is going to be nice to have jars instead of those flimsy bags. :)
Thanks again!
I ordered and received several containers of landscape elements dyes. They come with no instructions, and i cannot find any on the site. How long do they need to sit for,do i need to pretreat fabric, what do I add to make the dyes not fade?
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