Which Dye is Best: A Semi-Scientific Experiment

vicemage they look great, I really like the color fade, and thanks for the new information.

 

Ahh, this is so helpful! I'm hoping to dye a doll soon, and was just going to use plain old rit, but now that I've seen all these options, I'm going to have to give it a bit more thought. I'm also really curious about rit dyemore... Over all though, thank you for all your work, this has helped me so much!

 

[MENTION=64394]Tokoz[/MENTION], you're quite welcome! I have a huge bottle of it here thanks to needing it to strip clean the original body for the Siamese, and the failed painting attempt on the elf. Since I had spare resin, too, I thought I'd help out a bit.

 

Has anybody tried to dye a body a fairly light color with idye poly yet? I know someone figured out a good NS restoring dye solution using a diluted mixture of RIT dyes, but all the successes with idye poly I've seen so far have been with very deep or dark colors... If I wanted to dye a WS body to match a NS head, do you think it'd be possible with the idye poly? Or would the color get too intense too quickly?

 

Good question and an equally good answer! Thank you both.

 

Thanks for that answer [MENTION=64394]Tokoz[/MENTION]!
I am thinking about trying to go for a minty-green/blue pastel color on a hybrid, so I'll try that when I get there, and post my results.

 

Great thread! I'll have to look into getting idye poly in Canada--this has given me some ideas!

 

Just a quick cellphone shot, but this LTF Lishe had epoxy ears added and was then dipped in an iDye poly VIOLET dye bath (no color intensifier). She is INCREDIBLY even in color, her ears did take darker but not as dark as I thought they would. Only one area marbled a touch, and anything that was sanded (gates) came out slightly darker. I'll be adding more photos to my flickr.

LTF Lishe Purple head by foxwindstudios, on Flickr

 

That's awesome. I am definitely ordering some of this stuff. I really want to do a doll in deep purple or lime green or maybe deep black. I have Miro girl dolls in dark green, blue, lavender-ish violet. I've been thinking hard about dying a boy some dark, wild color too. I like the darker more electric colors so likely I would use that color intensifier. One of the prettiest BJD girls I've ever seen was a white IH girl that someone dyed almost a dark eggplant purple and did a goth face up on. She was just amazing, but I'm told getting her that color wasn't easy...

 

Thank YOU @Tokoz for doing such great trials. Only dipped each part for a minute. She's more red purple (warm purple) so if someone was looking for a cooler purple they'd need to add some blue.

Edit [MENTION=39100]SwivelChair[/MENTION] While dying the LTF purple, the pieces started very lightly, at around 15-30 seconds and with less dye (more diluted) in the water. I had to add more dye (drops was really all that was necessary) and leave them in longer (1 minute) to get to the color I did. I'm positive with the right mix of red/brown/yellow in more diluted quantities you could achieve a NS or even a refresh to NS with iDye poly.

 

This thread is so awesomely informative. I've tried Rit before and it came out so poorly I ended up spray painting that doll with Krylon Fusion and giving up on dye. But based on what I've read here, I've just ordered some iDye Poly and am going to give dyeing another shot (on a different doll). This time I'll be using brown on an Impldoll Realskin doll--- their realskin is more of a deep golden yellow than any kind of tan, and what I want is a light soft tan. I really hope it turns out well!

 

I am prepping to dye my Resinsoul MSD body tomorrow. I'll report my results here.

 

Got him dyed it worked out very well. I even tried dying the plastic skeletal spider I just got and it a great job of aging it.


The Apoxie did dye darker but what really surprised me was the Soom GEM hands dyed so dark. I timed every piece at 2 minutes, first in were the feet then in went the hands. Photos show the difference.

 

Great job @SteamWitch it does make a case for different companies resin taking dye differently. Even though I time pieces I always peek to make sure they're not taking to much dye. You should be able to remove some of it with some alcohol on a magic eraser. Or you could just blush them.

 

He (his name is Xeswite) is going to become a copper clockwork boy so I'm not worried about the color differences right now. Parts of him actually look like rich dark mahogany wood with lines and swirls like wood grain of all things. (yes I pulled out my Hunger games quote 'That's mahogany!', )
Perhaps part of him will remain woodlike since it is really kind of cool and still fits the steampunk aesthetic.

 

Progress over the dying. It is a deep rich copper. I used copper pigment in an acrylic varnish. There is a bit of green in there too. Next comes the details.
DSCF6083 by SteamWitch BJDmama, on Flickr
DSCF6084 by SteamWitch BJDmama, on Flickr

 

Thank you, I'm pretty sure the rest will take me all winter as I don't have a drawing of what I want to do with him. It will be 99% inspiration with all the steampunk junk I have lying around.

 

Wow, that's impressive.

 

I dyed my Resinsoul Mei using the IDye poly method a little while ago using the brown mixed with yellow and definitely learned so much - like don't attempt to use IDYE like Rit in a bucket or you'll have a heart attack thinking you ruined your doll, acetone and magic erasers don't get out all stains if they've penetrated too deep after said bucket mistake, and not to string your doll in the pot between the eyes with cotton string that wont take dye meant for synthetics - not to mention watch the temperature of said pot so they all dye the same.

But after all that, I gotta say I'm happy with how she turned out - small imperfections and all. Kinda gives her character, you know?

Also I also got a bit of a wood-grainy finish on parts of her, but thought that was because I'd sanded her a bit too roughly? Weird.

(I'll come back and post pictures later, when I can get some in natural light.)

 

A friend of mine will really love this, thank you!

 

I dyed a SOOM Necy from '13 sitting on a TG body from 14 using Rit Dye. Had ordered some chocolate brown but the end result were bright ruby red. Had tested on a pair of old hands and it turned out brown there so I didn't think twice about dumping all of his parts into the boiling pot. The results can be seen here: /threads/rit-dye-my-misadventures-with-a-happy-end.696324/#post-11785450

 

this is amazing. Thank you so much for all your hard work.

 

And another to add to the pile. This time I had 3 distinct resin colors. A FL M-line body NS, a yellowed upper torso (still FL NS), and a DiM doll NS head. I was going to try to de-yellow the upper torso first, but I know a lot of people have asked about the difference a yellowed vs. an unyellowed piece in a dye pot. So here's the answer!

Before:
before dye bath by foxwindstudios, on Flickr

After: iDye Poly in brown first, then a very healthy amount of iDye Poly in yellow. Probably should have started with the yellow and added the brown. The brown is very warm/red in color.
Untitled by foxwindstudios, on Flickr
Please excuse the darker bit on her hips, its just my shadow, she's actually quite uniform in color, the head being more 'red' than the rest. But once she has a faceup and probably a body blush, you'll barely even notice. Can't see them in this photo but the seam sanding from FL did take slightly differently as well.

Last piece to go in next to its partner calf.
Untitled by foxwindstudios, on Flickr

 

Wow! I need to track down some of this stuff in black.

Thanks everyone for posting all these amazing dye jobs!

 

@PeppermintPocky, in the US, Blick Art Supplies (aka Dick Blick) carries a decent range; you can also find other suppliers on the iDye website (though I recommend calling to be sure they carry the Poly line). I got my packet of grey from a local craft store, since Blick doesn't stock that particular color, however, I have seen black there, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting that one!

 

@PeppermintPocky, I got mine from Walmart online with free shipping took about 5 days, but check around for local.

 

Thank you both very much! I'm pumped and so ready to dye my Soom Pyrol black (his centaur half, anyway) after reading all these threads.

 

Is there a chart/guide anywhere for mixing iDyePoly colors?

 

Oh wow... I'd be really keen to try dying a doll purple, or a little anthro cat into something like a Siamese or a tuxedo, depending. Thank you so much for all this information! I hope to be able to test it out one day myself.

 

Wow, these are all awesome references! I wish I had random doll parts laying around so I could play around with colors and see what I could mix and get.

I had just recently tried using Rit to dye a new Fairyland fairyline bust I had bought second hand from Beauty white to something closer to Natural skin so it would match the NS body I have. For some reason though even after cleaning and scrubbing the piece, the bust would not take any dye at all. It ended up the same BW color it started out as, so odd.

I eventually gave up and just settled for just using the default bust that came with the body...I wish iDye poly had more neutral colors available where I am, I would have tried that first but I wouldn't know what to mix to try and get a light peachy color. XD

 

Did you use the Rit Dyemore, it's a newer blend for synthetics (like dolls) the other standard Rit Dye (for natural material), doesn't take well to dolls any longer since they changed their formulas. Give it another go, I'm sure you can do it! Amazon sells both Rit Dyemore and iDye poly.

 

This is a super interesting thread! Thank you for putting this out here as a resource. Modding is a part of the hobby that interests me very much and dying would be a fair part of that.

 

Oh no I didn't even know they had a new one for synthetics. I just used the normal Rit dye, I'll look into the new Rit now. Thanks!

 

Here is my WIP with the Resinsoul dyed body. My clockwork boy. The Soom wings were bronze so I just painted them with acrylic and metallic pigment. I'm leaving the face natural.
Xeswite WIP by SteamWitch BJDmama, on Flickr
Xeswite WIP by SteamWitch BJDmama, on Flickr
So far with all the bumping and abuse this body is taking it has not chipped the dye off. I will be carving into the chest to make holes for the gear work, that should show me how deep the dye actually went. I will have to paint the interior before placing the gear work.

 

Whoa. This is incredible. Thanks for sharing such in depth info!

 

that looks terrific @SteamWitch i'd love to see him when you get the clockworks in. do you have a project thread somewhere?

 

Not for him atm.Though I have plenty of photos I could start one. When I get started on the gear-works in his chest I'll post one in the workshop.

 

post a link here when you do please?

 

Okay, I will, I just dremeled some holes for his gears so I should be starting on it this weekend. Depending on my family's whims that is.

 

This is fabulous, now I can tan my boy skin! THANK YOOOUUU

 

Here he is finished. The Soom wings are just painted, I didn't dye them.
Myson by SteamWitch BJDmama, on Flickr

 

He is awesome!

 

iDye Poly is great stuff. I've seen it used in some of the other groups/forums I'm on, and it just does fabulously. It takes so well. Thanks for the tutorial/infographics!

 

Has anyone rit dye synthetic?

 

Lol I'm dense thanks for pointing that out
Hobby lobby only carries rit and one other brand I haven't heard of using

 

Yea that's it
I got some dye more yesterday just gotta wait for my boy to get here

 

Has anyone had any issues with Idye Poly dyed dolls reacting to sealants used for face-ups? My dyed boy ghosted horribly with Mr super clear!

 

Thank you for the info Tokoz!

 

Hey everyone! So I just got in my GORGEOUS Loongsoul body in tan, and I think I'm ready to take the plunge to dye her head to match (it's NS). I've done a lot of research but I'm still so nervous of ruining her!

The Loongsoul tan is a very mellow color, and the IDye Poly (which seems to be the favorite for even, rich color) isn't really offered in anything that light. Do you think mixing the Brown and Yellow would work for a lighter tan? I can try to take a picture of her to share if that would help.

Also, from what I understand, the IDye Poly only comes in packets, so I have to use all of it at once? I was thinking I could use less of the dye so it's not as strong of a color, but I'm guessing that's not really possible? Do I just need a ton of water to dilute it?

Sorry for the noobish questions, I really want to the bite the bullet already and get to dyeing my dolls!