Tie Dyed roving dread tutorial
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:45 pm
What you will need:
White wool either pre rolled or as it comes (I prefer pre-rolled)
White vinegar
Two bowls, one that can be micro waved
Water and a running water supply
Cling film
Squeezey bottles x however many colours you require
Acid dye x however many colours you require
Gloves
Measuring tape
A teaspoon (do not use in the kitchen again afterwards)
Kettle
Lets start!!
To begin with, make sure you have everything to hand, boil the kettle, place the dreads/wool in to the non microwavable bowl, poor the boiled water over them ensuring all the dreads are fully submerged ( I have done this with a few dreads to show you how)
Next, take your acid dye colours
and your squeezy bottles, add the water to about ¾ of the top, then add in your acid dye colours to each separate bottle, the more dye you put in, the more vibrant the shade will come out, then add your white vinegar, gently shake and put to one side
If you know the length of your dreads/wool then measure the cling film to be about 10cm extra from this length, gently place the cling film down on a flat, dry non dyeable surface – for me my kitchen floor was the only space available, but due to the tiles it was perfect.
Wring out about 10 or so dreads so that they are moist but not dripping, gently place them on to the cling film ensuring there is plenty of cling film around all four edges
NOW THE FUN BEGINS!!!
Take one of your colours, and randomly splash, squeeze, twizzle or whack the colour on
Continue doing this with all the colours you desire
You can completely cover the wool with dye, or leave areas of white if you wish.
Once you have done one side, carefully turn the wool over, ensuring the other side is coloured as well.
Once you are satisfied with the colour you have added to the wool/dreads gently pull the middle of the cling film inwards and allow it to stick together, then roll the whole thing up like a snail, ensuring that the cling film separates each layer or rolled wool, place in to the microwavable bowl
Heat in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, leave to stand for a minute, then gently and carefully unravel in a sink etc, wash the wool/dreads until all the colour runs out.
Repeat this whole process until all the wool/dreads are dyed.
Once dried, my dreads looked like this
But depending on what colours and shades you use, you may get a completely different effect, especially if using lots of different colours such as blues, reds, yellows, greens etc, I would love to see how other peoples attempts come out, no two dreads ever come out the same so this is a truly unique way of dying dreads.
What did I learn along the way?
Being properly prepared is the key to this working, ensuring you have all your equipment means there is little chance of getting dye everywhere.
I was a silly Squidge and didn’t have any gloves but decided to go ahead anyway as I was too excited.. this is halfway through…
It took about a week to get the dye off of my nails, hand about 2 days… don’t be fooled, gloves are on of the most essential parts to this..
Halfway through colouring the dreads I decided to add vinegar to the bowl of water and dreads, this gave a slightly different effect to the dreads once they had been dyed, those dreads were more blended and subtle. This look was nice, but I preferred the more blocky, chunky colour look, so decided to re-dye a few of the dreads to make them more vibrant. If you find some of them are not bright enough, you can repeat the process again.
Right… I think that that is everything, as always any questions, comments and suggestions are more than welcome, as are pictures if you decide to have a go for yourself.. I thought this was loads of fun and am itching to get some time to try with other colours etc…. grrr I have so many ideas!!
Thanks for looking my lovelies!!!
White wool either pre rolled or as it comes (I prefer pre-rolled)
White vinegar
Two bowls, one that can be micro waved
Water and a running water supply
Cling film
Squeezey bottles x however many colours you require
Acid dye x however many colours you require
Gloves
Measuring tape
A teaspoon (do not use in the kitchen again afterwards)
Kettle
Lets start!!
To begin with, make sure you have everything to hand, boil the kettle, place the dreads/wool in to the non microwavable bowl, poor the boiled water over them ensuring all the dreads are fully submerged ( I have done this with a few dreads to show you how)
Next, take your acid dye colours
and your squeezy bottles, add the water to about ¾ of the top, then add in your acid dye colours to each separate bottle, the more dye you put in, the more vibrant the shade will come out, then add your white vinegar, gently shake and put to one side
If you know the length of your dreads/wool then measure the cling film to be about 10cm extra from this length, gently place the cling film down on a flat, dry non dyeable surface – for me my kitchen floor was the only space available, but due to the tiles it was perfect.
Wring out about 10 or so dreads so that they are moist but not dripping, gently place them on to the cling film ensuring there is plenty of cling film around all four edges
NOW THE FUN BEGINS!!!
Take one of your colours, and randomly splash, squeeze, twizzle or whack the colour on
Continue doing this with all the colours you desire
You can completely cover the wool with dye, or leave areas of white if you wish.
Once you have done one side, carefully turn the wool over, ensuring the other side is coloured as well.
Once you are satisfied with the colour you have added to the wool/dreads gently pull the middle of the cling film inwards and allow it to stick together, then roll the whole thing up like a snail, ensuring that the cling film separates each layer or rolled wool, place in to the microwavable bowl
Heat in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, leave to stand for a minute, then gently and carefully unravel in a sink etc, wash the wool/dreads until all the colour runs out.
Repeat this whole process until all the wool/dreads are dyed.
Once dried, my dreads looked like this
But depending on what colours and shades you use, you may get a completely different effect, especially if using lots of different colours such as blues, reds, yellows, greens etc, I would love to see how other peoples attempts come out, no two dreads ever come out the same so this is a truly unique way of dying dreads.
What did I learn along the way?
Being properly prepared is the key to this working, ensuring you have all your equipment means there is little chance of getting dye everywhere.
I was a silly Squidge and didn’t have any gloves but decided to go ahead anyway as I was too excited.. this is halfway through…
It took about a week to get the dye off of my nails, hand about 2 days… don’t be fooled, gloves are on of the most essential parts to this..
Halfway through colouring the dreads I decided to add vinegar to the bowl of water and dreads, this gave a slightly different effect to the dreads once they had been dyed, those dreads were more blended and subtle. This look was nice, but I preferred the more blocky, chunky colour look, so decided to re-dye a few of the dreads to make them more vibrant. If you find some of them are not bright enough, you can repeat the process again.
Right… I think that that is everything, as always any questions, comments and suggestions are more than welcome, as are pictures if you decide to have a go for yourself.. I thought this was loads of fun and am itching to get some time to try with other colours etc…. grrr I have so many ideas!!
Thanks for looking my lovelies!!!
