Dyes and Katazome
The dyes in katazome are applied to the yardage over a water-soluble rice paste
resist. For this reason the dyes must be applied cold–most often by brush–otherwise you risk having the paste dissolve away from the fabric long before
desired.
I prefer using natural dyes. You may also use synthetic dyes with katazome
techniques, but I won’t be covering them here.
The dyes I use fall into two major categories, juice dyes and pigment dyes. The
juice dyes are brewed up from a variety of plant sources, along with a couple
of varieties of insects. The juice dyes will almost always have a mordant added
to help bring out the color. Pigments may be derived from plants, insects, or
minerals, and once prepared do not need a mordant added but do need a binder to
hold them to the fiber. The binder I prefer is soymilk.
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copyright John Marshall, 2011
