what types of dye are used in sun printing?
Name: Carol Message: I am wondering what dye is used on fabric that when dyed and laid in the sun, develops the dye color. If patterns are put over the fabric, then that part remains lighter or white. This is used making the Hawaiian sarongs or pareos. There are three different ways to color fabric permanently with sun-developed images. The easiest is actually sun painting, not dyeing. You saturate fabric with transparent fabric paint, arrange objects on the damp fabric, then expose the assemblage to the sun or any hot lamp. It is actually the infrared light (radiant heat) which does the trick. Exposed areas dry first, in the hot light; the drying exposed fabric sucks additional wet dye out from under whatever you have placed on top of the fabric. The result is lighter-colored ‘shadows’ wherever you placed the masking objects. The color is deeper where the light from the sun, or the hot lamp, was able to reach. It is not the ultraviolet in the light which does the work, but instead inf
