His dye job is beautiful. I've seen him before and it never occurred to me that you had dyed him. I'm about to try dyeing a doll for the first time soon, and I hope it comes out half as well!
Thank you so much! I've dyed several dolls and learned by trial and error. The best results I've gotten are gotten like this: Sand the whole doll thoroughly with very fine grit. Take hours. Take days. Thoroughly. Dye carefully, in several coats. Do the first dye lightly. Keep natural lighting while you work so you can watch your color tones. Rinse each piece as you go. After this first dyeing, use a magic eraser to scrub away any streaky spots. Repeat. Use eraser again on any more streaks. Repeat, until you arrive at the color intensity you wanted. Doing it in layers like this keeps the doll from having streaks all over, and gives you a mostly smooth finish. Magnets will often have their glue dissolved by the dyeing process so glue them back in, the right way round. If your tan turns out too orange, scrub it mostly off and overdye it with a coat of rit cocoa brown, which has a lot of purply red to it, or a blend of pinks. That's not a tutorial exactly, but it's the best advice I can give to anyone about to use Rit Dye.
Wow, thanks! That's actually incredibly helpful, and I'll definitely be referring to it when my body arrives and it's time to dye. The advice regarding avoiding streaking is especially awesome, since that was my biggest concern. I'm going to be dyeing to match Iplehouse gray skin, so I'll probably use black liquid Rit, highly diluted... it tends to have a lavender cast to it when watered down to gray, at least on fabric. Thanks again for the advice!
You're welcome! Be careful with black, as it can react weirdly with metals in the pot you use, and some resins take it differently than others. Test on a headcap or other easy to scrub piece first to be sure it gives the color you want. Rit dyes can, to some extent, be mixed a bit like paints to get a warmer or cooler tone. Good Luck!
His dye job is beautiful. I've seen him before and it never occurred to me that you had dyed him. I'm about to try dyeing a doll for the first time soon, and I hope it comes out half as well!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I've dyed several dolls and learned by trial and error. The best results I've gotten are gotten like this: Sand the whole doll thoroughly with very fine grit. Take hours. Take days. Thoroughly. Dye carefully, in several coats. Do the first dye lightly. Keep natural lighting while you work so you can watch your color tones. Rinse each piece as you go. After this first dyeing, use a magic eraser to scrub away any streaky spots. Repeat. Use eraser again on any more streaks. Repeat, until you arrive at the color intensity you wanted. Doing it in layers like this keeps the doll from having streaks all over, and gives you a mostly smooth finish. Magnets will often have their glue dissolved by the dyeing process so glue them back in, the right way round. If your tan turns out too orange, scrub it mostly off and overdye it with a coat of rit cocoa brown, which has a lot of purply red to it, or a blend of pinks.
DeleteThat's not a tutorial exactly, but it's the best advice I can give to anyone about to use Rit Dye.
Wow, thanks! That's actually incredibly helpful, and I'll definitely be referring to it when my body arrives and it's time to dye. The advice regarding avoiding streaking is especially awesome, since that was my biggest concern. I'm going to be dyeing to match Iplehouse gray skin, so I'll probably use black liquid Rit, highly diluted... it tends to have a lavender cast to it when watered down to gray, at least on fabric. Thanks again for the advice!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Be careful with black, as it can react weirdly with metals in the pot you use, and some resins take it differently than others. Test on a headcap or other easy to scrub piece first to be sure it gives the color you want. Rit dyes can, to some extent, be mixed a bit like paints to get a warmer or cooler tone. Good Luck!
Delete