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- Colour mixing is what a lot of dyers find the most intimidating part of dyeing and,
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- because of this, tend to use only the pre-mixed colours available from the dye
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- houses. This severely limits the range of colours that you can use. You can
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- experiment with mixing colours in many ways.
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- You can do colour wheels using three different dyes in the "primary positions". This
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- entails using three different colours and mixing them in different strengths as you
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- go around the wheel. The easiest way to do this is to dye a "double graduation"
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- three times, using the set of three colours that you have chosen, to go all the way
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- around the wheel. I have placed the colours as a pyramid to make it easier for you to
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- see the "primary positions".
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- To start with you could use a basic set of primary colours to show you how colour
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- theory actually works. Then you could move onto other experiments using colours
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- which aren't traditionally a set of primaries.
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- Doing colour wheels is a time consuming project, but worth every minute spent
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- experimenting with your colours. You can shorten the process by simply mixing two
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- colours in a double graduation instead of three in a colour wheel, but using different
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- percentage combinations. You may have noticed with the colour wheels that there
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- are 5 colours on each side of the pyramid. This includes the two 'primary positions',
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- which means that the colours themselves have been mixed in steps of 25%
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- increments and decreasing by the same values. So if you have used blue and yellow
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- you will have one blue and one yellow and 3 greens. These greens will be 25%
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- yellow and 75% blue, 50% yellow and 50% blue, 75% yellow and 25% blue. You can
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- change this by adding another step to the side of the pyramid and you will end up
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- with 4 greens with different percentages. Using the method demonstrated in the
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- basic 'Double Colour Graduation' section eliminates any need for complicated
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- mathematics. But by considering the percentages you will clearly see that the colour
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- combinations are indeed limited only by the time and effort you are willing to
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- outlay. This colour graduation shows what happens when you use 8 FQ's and use
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- 1/4 of the diluted solution for every step. What transpires is a slow, even, subtle
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- change of colour through from one end to the other.