Color mixing help

[BlackCatDetector]

I am trying to make brown, I made a decent brown, but when applied onto fabric the edges were a nasty looking green. Are there anyways to prevent that from happening? Thanks!

[Darlene]

Can you tell us what you mixed? Your recipe might just need a little tweaking.

[deb]

I find that kind of thing with browns, and also with "burgundy" (the Jacquard "burgundy," which is more brown with green at the edges.  )

I find that a good tight TIGHT tie helps give better demarcation and less "bleeding" of the component colors, and that putting a color next to the brown (like, perhaps, olive green) that'll hide the bleed helps too.

[pburch]

Different choices of primaries will give different halo effects. Some combinations are much worse than others; for example, anything that includes both turquoise MX-G and red MX-8B will have very significant halos.

Paula

[Jaja]

Do you apply it by painting? I think it acts like that due to having color mix, not a primary. Different MX dyes have different diffuse rates.

[BlackCatDetector]

Thank you all for your responses! 

I apply it in squeeze bottles, I use no thickeners.
The formula I'm using is:
1/2 tsp Yellow MX-8G, 1/2 tsp Red MX-BA, and 7/8 tsp Blue MX-R
I'm mixing that with 12 oz of water also.

[Darlene]

I'm not sure if this would have anything to do with your green edges, but it sounds to me like your mix would be terribly weak and dilute for a good brown. The amount of dye you're putting in there, I wouldn't mix into more than 6 oz. of water. Try reducing your water content and see how it goes.

If you're open to experimentation, good rich browns can be achieved starting with a strong, pure orange and tweaking very gradually with very small amounts of blue. I'm personally not crazy about Blue MX-R, so I would use something closer to a pure navy into the mix for a dark chocolate brown. I tend to eyeball everything, so I have no exact recipe to provide, but in general I would expect to find about 3 tsp. of dye in 8 ounces of water for a dark brown.

Just my .02 cents.

Dar

[pburch]

I agree, Darlene.

Also, Red MX-BA is a mixture of two or more dyes. It's better to use pure unmixed dye colors as your mixing primaries, so you know what you've got.

Green edges are caused by using blue and yellow that migrate farther than your red. Using orange MX-2R instead of yellow and red will help; then you have to choose your blue or navy blue so that it doesn't tend to creep more or less far than your orange. There are lots of blue choices to experiment with: blue MX-2R, navy blue MX-3R, blue MX-4GD, blue MX-R, even blue MX-G can be good for mixing browns.

To see which Procion type dyes are good mixing primaries, see Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?. To experiment without leaving your desk, see Olli Niemitalo's Dye Mixer Applet. For more color mixing charts for Procion MX dyes, see the Jacquard Products table for mixing Procion MX dye colors, which I've improved by adding generic names, my English translations of the color mixing charts at Dreamline, and the color mixing chart from Maiwa Handprints.

Paula