Seeing the two shirts side by side is like the difference in looking at something with your glasses off or on. The ice dye has sharper and cleaner lines.
I was about to go buy myself a garden sprayer today to try HWI, but after seeing this I think I'll stick with ice dyeing. Thanks so much for posting this experiment.
I am a real fan of the ice dying. I tried my first one last week and I am pleased with the results. The color splits are so fun. You never know what you're going to get. Thank you for all your great videos.
It's pretty cool how in the hot water dye shirt, it looks almost 3D with the lines seemingly creating shadows among a softer color look. Of the two I would probably choose the hot water shirt because of the cool looking 3D effect.
Wow! Thank you so much for doing the same shirt in two different ways. I am not sure which one Iike best. They are both very beautiful. Thank you for another great video. I look forward to seeing more like this. Oh, like the difference between sinew tied and kite string.
I sure wish I had seen this video BEFORE I ordered my pump sprayer!!! Oh well, there may be times where the crisp lines won’t be the focal point (scrunch, etc.). For $10 I can be a sport and experiment a bit. Thank you so much for posting this! It was a tremendous help. To think-a video of yours got me started six short months or so ago; now my family scarcely sees me unless they step into my dyeing lair. 😉
Thanks for doing this experiment! I love seeing the differences between dyeing methods. They are both beautiful shirts but the ice dye is my favorite. I love how the incline gives all the movement and the colors are perfect on these. Which is your favorite?
Ice dye came out very nice I haven’t tried the incline yet with the h w I and might have to try it out today also when I use the h w I usually do the bottom side of the spiral that’s much tighter once it pushes through that it flows easily to the other side thanks again for the experiment
I like the ice dye much better. One remarkable difference is the center design. The HWI center looks odd. I don’t know what color it was. The center on the ice dye is more detailed and prettier. I did a shirt last week that I ice dyed. Then in the morning after it had been under two layers of ice, I put it in low water immersion with hot water. And washed it out in an hour. It came out great. Had the ice dye spits and I was able to finish the shirt in less than 24 hours.
what an amazing difference. I've been primarily ice dying bc I love it. Recently bought a pump for HWI but for some reason just can't force myself to use it yet. LOLOL Thanks for the vid, Angie. Another great one, as usual.
Love the ice-dyed version...so much more movement & variations on it. Hot water irrigation seems like a lot of trouble for not a lot of impact. Thanks so much for the video!
thank you for this experiment. I was just starting down the path of looking into hot water irrigation. I think I still prefer the look of ice dye. I love your videos, they are so helpful.
Thank you - me too! Yes, normally I make color swatches for both since they can vary quite a bit. However, I somehow overlooked making one for the Blueberry and so I thought I would just try it out.
Thank you for your amazing videos. I personally like the hot water one better cause the center of the ice-dye turned out too blotchy for my taste. I think the white gap made a huge difference on the ice-dye, I suspect it to be better without the white. I think for the hot water one it was way better though as the colours might mix too much without the gap. Thanks for showing us the difference.
Thank you! I started buying solely from Dharma years ago. However, in the last couple of years I've started buying from some of the other suppliers. Since most of the dye colors are mixed ones, different suppliers offer different colors. Also, last year it was kind of tough for some of the suppliers to have certain colors available, so most tie dyers resorted to purchasing from who ever had stock available.
Hi Angie - Me again. Words fail me. I just guess it is probably a chemical reaction thing, or something. Um... I choose all of the 2 shirts. A girl just can't help herself. =^..^= Thank you. Blessings. *:D
That works! If you ice dye the shirt first, it will have more of the ice dyed look. The HWI is just to finish it off with a burst of hot water to make sure the dye bonds properly with the shirt.
This is fantastic to see. I am experimenting and haven't tried HWI but I am wanting to. I have tried my first Phoenix and most of them use HWI that I have seen. Being fond of ice dying that's the route I went. It's batching now but I have seen some amazing shirts done with HWI. Now I am wondering, if you ice dye something then after 24 or 48 hours hit it with the sprayer might you get something in between? I am temped to try it with this shirt but I am scared as I spent most of the night folding this baby. Again I thank you for your posts and information. Your comments during the video are as important as the test itself!
Thank you - I'm glad you liked it! I haven't ice dyed and then HWI afterwards, but I have heard several tie dyers discuss using that method to make sure the dye bonds well. Especially if they don't want to wait as long for the shirt to process.
@@FunEndeavors Thank you ! I'll give it a try, nothing ventured nothing gained. However I still live my ice dying and I do wait 48+ hours as the washouts are faster :-)
Prefer the ice dyed shirt for sure! And thank you so much for doing a side by side like this. I had been contemplating trying HWI and wondered if the results would be as dramatic as ice dyes (in general) and this helps me better understand. So again, thank you. I like how you not only explain what you do when you dye, but also why you do what you do. It's geek-ery candy! :)
Thank you so much - I'm really glad you like it! It is sometimes difficult to decide whether to speed the videos up and make them short with little explanation, or slow them down a bit and explain more about the process.
all my dyes are hwi. took me quite a while to get good at it .I always dye the back as well. formula 3 sa to 1 to 1 powder saves a lot of money if you buy sa from pool supply 50 lb.for $40. you can also ice dye very well. all hemostat mandalas with the same formula,\.strong clear colors looove your videos!
Thank you! It is a sous vide wand. Here are links to the wand and the container to heat the water. Sous Vide Wand: amzn.to/2SNdhS0 Rubbermaid 18 quart Container: amzn.to/2TJ9vct
Hi! I use fiber reactive dyes. If you are in the United States, you can purchase them from Dharma Trading Company, Pro Chemical and Dye, Dyespin, Grateful Dyes or Custom Colours. All of these companies have websites.
I think that hot water irrigation is a bit splotchier, and doesn't have the subtlety of ice dyes...but it works ! Do you think that there weren't any color splits on the h.w i. shirts because of time needed for them to happen or because ice dye has more water in the process which to facilitate them? I like your comparison of methods and dyes side-by-side. How about one on Dui vs Doi? Thanks for posting! Sincerely. Keith M.
I agree with you, I don't see as many color splits in my HWI shirts as I do in ice dyed shirts. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think the dye doesn't have the ability to slowly split when the water is added with HWI like it does with ice. With ice dyeing, the dye can gradually mix with the slowly melting ice and split before it bonds with the shirt. In the HWI method, since the water is so hot the dye bonds almost immediately when the water hits it. I am actually working on a new video for DUI vs. DOI. I did that experiment, but it was a long time ago. I'm redoing a few of my older experiments using some colors that have very pronounced color splits.
I tried a modified method that is a combo.of ice dye and hot water irrigation. Basically you do your ice dye , and as soon as it has melted, then you proceed to adding your hot water to the fabric. This shortens the time needed by 36-48 hrs. and still has all the gorgeous color splits and dye movement that ice dyeing has.. Happy tie dyeing! Keith M.😂
So to dye things like polyester I know you have to use a special dye that works only with hot water. Would the hot water irrigation method work for this?
I'm not entirely sure. I personally haven't ever dyed polyester items. You might be able to find some information about the topic on either Paula Burch's website or on Dharma Trading Company's website.
Thank you! I started buying solely from Dharma years ago. However, in the last couple of years I've started buying from some of the other suppliers. Since most of the dye colors are mixed ones, different suppliers offer different colors. Also, last year it was kind of tough for some of the suppliers to have certain colors available, so most tie dyers resorted to purchasing from who ever had stock available. I buy my shirts from a wholesale supplier (SanMar).
![Tie Dye Designs: Comparing Ice Dye and Hot Water Irrigation [HWI] Tie Dye Experiment](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
