Monday, April 14, 2008

I Love Reds




Yes I admit I love hooking with red, what a change from my 20s. When we moved into a house with a bowling alley length living room with a red floor I BLANCHED inside and out and vowed to wear sun glasses. But now I love red and try to use it whenever possible in my home and work.
Jules Feiffer said :
Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.

I have spent a whole week immersed in the colour red. I dyed up several terrific recipes for RHM and even made some comparison ones for Pro chem users.
The original Majic Carpet colour is on the right over natural and the Prochem one is on the left in each picture. You can see you can't really make a direct transfer but the reds are still beautiful. Even if you don’t own Majic Carpet dyes you can still make a stab at some great reds

Gabriel Garnet Dyed over 1/2 yd natural with Majic Carpet
4/32 Tsp. Red
1/32 Bottle Green
2/32 New Formula Red Violet

I dyed these over 1/4 yd each.
First I choose to “translate “ Gabriel Garnet into “Prochemese”

I retitled it - Imitation Gabriel Garnet
2/32 tsp.351 Prochem Bright Red
1/64 tsp. 725 Prochem Green
1/32 tsp. 338 Prochem Magenta

Please note I followed the same measures ( these were cut in half because I dyed 1/4 yd, not a 1/2 yd as per the original) and came up with a delightful red, though not the exact one. For a possible correction to the Imitation try adding 1/64 th magenta and 1/32 Bright Red and a hint of some blue.

Next I tried Hanchett’s Vermont Barn. Not able to approximate the chocolate brown and moss green accurately with out lengthy recipes I opted to use Brick to do the work of the brown and green.

Hanchett’s Vermont Barn In Majic carpet
4/32 tsp. Red
2/64 tsp. Moss Green
1/64 tsp. Chocolate Brown

Hanchett’s New Hampshire Barn with Prochem
2/32 tsp. 351 Prochem Bright Red
2/32 tsp. 255 Prochem Brick
Shown with it’s Majic Carpet counterpoint you can see it isn’t exactly the same but it is a very good red. For a closer call add the same formula into the dye bath again.

1 comment:

  1. Wanda, they are gorgeous, but I must say you have convinced me before that Majic Carpet dyes are wonderful ... the comparison photos show a greater richness and depth that MC gives to wool ... just amazing ... thanks for being so generous with your expertise, time and detailed how-tos.
    Linda

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