Homemade Dye Spray Booth
My Dad gave me my first driving lesson without being allowed
in the driver’s seat. It was more a
lecture demonstration on all the features of a car, especially the safety
features. He also showed me how to check
the oil, antifreeze, water in the radiator and battery. Last, how to change a tire. I have to admit it was one of the most
valuable afternoons I ever spent with my Dad.
I have to give the same credit to my Theater Department in grad school
for giving its students, known for experimenting in their shops, a class on
craft safety. I recently found several videos online using fabric dye that
made me apprehensive for anyone who had not been in my class.
Fabric dye is not just correlated with toxicity, it is a
known carcinogenic. This means that rather
than an acceptable concentration to stay
below like with lead, mercury or cadmium, a few years of unprotected dye exposure builds
from risk to eventuality of cancer. Contact
needs to be avoided all together.
In the segments I’ve seen recently, loose dried dye was
sprinkled freely in the open. Anyone who
has cleaned up after using dye, especially in powdered form has seen drops of
water hitting a surface kept scrupulously clean suddenly burst into color when
it hits a spec of dye too small to the naked eye. Unfortunately, this leads to a cancer risk.
Fortunately, there are measures that are easy and
effective. First, try to use liquid dye
whenever possible. Second, never use any
utensil or container used for dyeing for eating or drinking. Keep a set completely dedicated for
dyeing. And use a spray booth.
This is a contained workspace that captures stray particles
or droplets. If you don’t have access to
an industrial shop equipped with one, no worries, it’s so easy make one and
keep it around for all your projects it’s foolhardy not to do it. All you need is a cardboard box big enough to
mix and pour in, a couple of old towels or a roll of paper towels, a mist water sprayer filled with ordinary
water and a pair of gloves.
- Cut the side off the box as shown below making sure to
keep a lip at the bottom.
- Line the bottom
with toweling.
- Spray the inside
of the box with water covering all surfaces.
Also spray a towel or a strip of paper towels big enough to drape over
the top, wet side facing the inside of the box and draping down over as leaving
just enough opening to mix your dye.
- Put on the gloves.
- Place the container the dye is going to be mixed in the
box fill with the desired amount of water and spray the inside of the container
above the fill line.
- If you have
ignored step 4, Put on Gloves! Mix your dye bringing the measuring
equipment and envelopes or containers of dye into the booth to open them
smoothly near the destination container avoiding as little flyaway of dye
particles.
- Leaving measuring
and stiring utensils inside the box, remove and use the liquid dye solution
taking care to wipe any spills or droplets immediately.
- For cleanup, spray
the inside of the box again fold the towels rolling the exposed surfaces to the
inside and dispose of in a closed container like a plastic bag and dispose of
or put in the wash separately from the regular wash.
For a reality check look at the inside of the draping towel
at cleanup. No matter how careful I’ve
been, I’ve never found it to be without any marks of dye. If you look carefully, even just tearing the
corner off an envelope of dye gives off a little “smoke” of dye particles
stirred into the air just by the motion of tearing. My spray booth has also come in handy with
spray glue and spray paint although I do that in a well ventilated area or
outside away from intake vents. It will
contain paint droplets but not the fumes.
If you insist on needing to manipulate the dye other than using a dyebath, use your dyebooth to mix the dye into a medium like methyl-cellulose or agar agar. Under no circumstances should you ever spray dye without a respirator with the correct cartridge that still has time left on it. A particle mask will protect you only from larger particles that by the time the water droplet dries may be too small for the mask to filter out.