Layering Dyes
A way of getting custom colors (besides mixing dyes, and creating pastels) is to “layer” colors to achieve a custom color. All of us have done this at some time: dip into one color, and then briefly dip into another, to layer the two.....or three or more...dyes into a new and different shade.
How does this method compare to others (mixing custom dyes, creating pastel dyes)?
Disadvantage: ican be hard to reproduce
Advantages: iless wasteful than mixing a new batch of dye,
allows more variety and experimentation,
can be used with otherwise incompatible dyes
In theory, whenever we make pysanky in the traditional manner, we are layering. Yellow is our base color, and over that we put orange, red, black. If you’ve ever written two-color (white + final color) pysanky, and go straight to the final color, you’ll realize the colors often aren’t as rich, or at least somehow not the same, as if you dye in yellow first.
Layering as a specific technique is most useful for a “one-off” dyeing situation–a single pysanka of a given design–as reproducing the results can be problematic. If exact color reproduction is not paramount, a known color sequence can be quite useful. Mind you, eggshells vary enough in their dyeing properties that you can never count on two eggs being dyed to end up the same exact color.
OLIVE GREEN: Layering is also useful in those situations where mixing the dyes is not an option. I often will dip a light green dyed egg into UGS orange briefly to get a lovely olive green. The exact shade of green varies, but mixing the two dyes together is not an option–the orange is vinegar intolerant.
ORANGE: The best, richest orange I’ve managed to produce on an egg resulted when I used an orange rinse on a red egg--a deep, full orange to die for! My red is a red mix (UGS scarlet + red).
BROWNS: It’s hard to find a good brown dye. For a rich mahogany color, I use UGS Dark Red over red or orange. For a deep walnut brown, I dip a red or orange pysanka into a jar of old, spent black dye.
And, as noted above, layering is a much simpler and less expensive way to go then mixing up lots of new test batches of dyes. And it is simpler than trying to spot dye large section of the egg.
Below are some layering “recipes” from the old Eggs-Pysanka Yahoo group. Some I may have found in the archive, but most were in response to my surveying the group.
going from dark green to pink gives purple (UGS only)
Kathy Canuel
I have been able to achieve beautiful shades of burgundy by dipping in either
purple first then dark red (both the UGS dyes) or dark red then purple....I personally prefer the combination of the dark red and purple over the red and purple combo. The dark red seems to make a richer, deeper shade of burgundy that I just love.
Judi J.
You can get a lovely burgundy by dyeing your egg red, then dipping it into
purple for just a minute or two.
Stephanie Astalos Jones
For a rich burgundy I use pink first, a quick scarlet dip, and then purple.
Kathy Meyer
Sheboygan, WI
Depending on the shade of purple that I want, I usually dip my egg into
red or blue first to give it a "base." I found that it gives me a richer
purple when finished.
Renee
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Another approach to custom colors
