The first step was to soak the fabric to be used in a soda ash solution and then allow it to dry. The soda ash bonds the dye to the fabric, so you must either pre-soak the fabric, or add the soda ash to the dye. A 20 minute soak is all that is needed. After the fabric is dry, print your image onto the fabric. You can see that the color magnet is yellow. It is also thinner than the paints we typically use. A little bit goes a long way!
For her sample Sue used a screen of Queen Anne's lace and azure blue dye. She used a low water immersion method and let the fabric batch for 24 hours before rinsing and washing.
Enlarge the photo above to better see the results. The azure blue turned out darker than anticipated so the color magnet prints are less obvious in this small photo.
Elizabeth's project was a cotton face mask which she printed with a dragonfly screen.
After allowing it to dry she dyed it green using an ice dye technique. (See our tutorial on ice dyeing for more info.) Here you can clearly see the effect of the color magnet. Quite the appropriate face mask for life on the lake in New Hampshire.
Sue decided to try a few more pieces, this time she used the ice dye technique with coral dye.
The results are below. One piece was directly under the ice (on the right), the other was in the pan below to catch the drips (on the left).
You could also use color magnet with stencils to create a pattern before dyeing, It is available in a pen form as well, so could be used for writing words or drawing designs. If you enjoy dyeing fabric, this is a fun product to play with to create pattern in fabric.
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