Disperse dyes

Disperse dyes are used to dye synthetic fabrics. As well as immersion dying disperse dyes can also be used in a process called transfer printing. The dyes are painted on to paper, which is then placed face down on the fabric and ironed, (or in this case, put in a heat press), in order to transfer the colour to the fabric.

The colours on the paper bear little resemblance to the colours on the fabric, as you can see in the examples below. (The paper and fabric images alternate.) Obviously, this makes mixing colours almost impossible.









The final piece was made by cutting stars out of the paper and printing with them over and over again. The dyed paper can be reused numerous times, though each subsequent print will be paler than the one before.