Why Is Ice Dyeing So Cool?

Hi – I’m Lynn Koolish and I dye fabric (and clothes and household items, and you name it). My latest Creative Spark Online Learning class is Ice Dyeing: Basics & Beyond. In it you learn all about ice dyeing including many techniques to create totally WOW fabrics.

So why is ice dyeing so cool? Well, yes, it does use ice. BUT, what really makes it super cool is that not only do you get unique patterns and blends of colors because of the ice, you often get multiple colors from one color of dye powder for color combinations you would never have thought of.

How does that work? Most colors of dye that you can buy are actually made up of multiple colors, blended to get the specific colors that you see on the color charts.

When you layer fabric, ice, and dye powder, the melting ice not only dissolves the dye powder to make the liquid dye solution, it randomizes how the dyes land on the fabric AND allows the dye powders to separate out into their component colors.

An easy way to see just what colors are in that jar of dye powder that you have is to sprinkle a tiny, tiny bit of dye powder onto a damp piece of paper towel or fabric. The dye powder will start to dissolve and separate so you can see all the different component colors.

Some dye colors are made of only one color, some are made of several colors, and some are made of many colors.

These are some of the tests that I’ve done to see what colors are in some of my favorite dye colors. In these examples most of the samples contain multiple colors. But the colors on the right, Mermaids Dream, Turquoise, and Electric Blue, don’t have much range of different colors. Blacks are some of the best dyes for getting fabulous color splits because they are made up of many, many different colors.

So, let me show you some dyed examples. The first are two example of what you can get using just one color of dye powder.

Or you can get more varied results using two colors of dye powder.

And wow—look at what you can get using more than two colors of dye powder!

There are so many colors and combinations to explore! You can learn more about me and all of my fabric dyeing classes on Creative Spark at creativespark.ctpub.com.

* All color names are from Dharma Trading’s Line of Procion Fiber reactive Dyes 

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