Studio Updates: New Gear

In this video I’m sharing some updates to my studio, with the spotlight on new products and equipment. In another video we’ll showcase fabrics. It’s always fun to try different ideas and methods. I may not use everything this year, but I like to be “tooled up” and ready.

Digital Scale

One new acquisition is a digital kitchen scale, used to weigh fabric and material for dye projects. This replaces my trusty kitchen scale that is limited to one pound. This affordable Beurer scale weighs up to 33 pounds (15 kilograms), and informs you if an item is “over limit”. You can configure different units, including pounds and ounces, ounces, grams, and kilograms. And you can retain a measurement, which is ideal when trying to weigh materials and record the results at the same time.

Digital kitchen scale for weighing fabric and dye material

Convection Cooktop

Another acquisition is an electric convection burner. I resisted going this route because convection cooktops require flat-bottomed, magnetic pans, which are more expensive and harder to find at thrift stores. But I was eager to move away from propane canisters, which require special disposal. This affordable Ovente Induction Cooktop offers a range of preset temperature levels, from 140 to 465 degrees Fahrenheit. Five timer levels are preset from 1 minute to 3 hours. Safety features shut down the burner when not in use. My camp stove worked well, but it was difficult to regulate temperature (it was either on or off). Luckily one of my thrifted stainless-steel pans works with the new cooktop.

Convection burner

Low-suds Detergent

I ran out of Synthrapol scouring soap at the end of last season, so this year I’m trying a low suds Professional Textile Detergent distributed by Dharma Trading Company. Here in the West, we must conserve water, so I’m hoping a low-suds detergent will reduce the quantity of water needed for rinsing.

Jars, Cans and Containers

I’m always on the lookout for good jars, cans, and containers. Last year I purchased a 3-liter canning jar at a thrift store, which works great for solar dyeing. Jars are also handy for storing used dye, collecting plant material, and mixing additives. Cans are also useful for mixing and extracting dye. Meat and vegetable trays can be used to collect and dry plant material. They are often high quality and in a variety of sizes.

Cans, jars, and containers are great for storing, drying and preparing dye material

Ferrous Sulfate

Last year I added ferrous sulfate powder to a red camelia dye bath. Iron darkens or “saddens” the dye bath, producing darker colors. This year I’d like to experiment more with using iron in the dye bath as a modifier to produce additional colors. You can make your own iron mordant solution by soaking iron in vinegar water and use it as an alternative to ferrous sulfate.

Make your own iron solution

Exhaust Dyeing

This year I also plan to experiment with exhaust dyeing, which means reusing dyes. Over the last several years I’ve collected quite a few left-over dyes. They have been used once, which is the first exhaust. Each use of a dye is an exhaust. With each exhaust, the color becomes lighter and lighter. Modifiers, such as washing soda and iron, change the pH of the dye bath and further modify the dye color. I’m curious to see the range of colors that can be produced from a single dye bath.

Each reuse of a dye is an exhaust

Solar and Eco-Dyeing

This year we’ll try more solar dyeing, which uses the sun or time to dye. And we may try "eco-dyeing", which is the direct transfer of color from plants. I’ve seen some interesting projects online.

Well, that’s it for now. As you can see, I have lots of plans, but may run out of time. Whatever I decide to do, I’m tooled up and ready to dye!