Rit dye & May Arts ribbon!

Some of you may know that May Arts had another design team call a while back. Round 2 involves the current design team members added into the mix! So I thought I'd show you another idea on changing the color of your ribbon! I'm sure many of you have used Rit dye, but have you tried it on ribbon?
I pulled out all those white ribbons you've seen me experiment with on the May Arts blog in the past:
HA01, QH01, DC01, EA01, XV01, FN01, 379-15-01, HN01, 353-01
And I bought some Rit dye (teal & wine). I tried the box/powdered versions, but they do sell a concentrate liquid, and after trying this technique I believe it would be a great option!

I visited the Rit dye website, and used the stove top method

I added salt to the mix, as recommended for the 'ombre' dying

I then added the mixed solution to a large pot full of hot water, and in went the ribbon!

I thought I 'd try a gradient/ombre effect (hence the salt addition), so some of the ribbon I put in to the color bath in sections every 15-20 minutes or so...

I moved the whole pot to the sink (after about an hour) and I should add the Rit website strongly encourages you to protect your surfaces. Some of us never learn... *wink*

I used tongs to pull the ribbon out & rinse

I set it all in my measuring cup to let it drip dry

And here's the finished 'teal' ribbon!

You can see the gradient effect I was going for was not successful.... (that's what experimenting is all about!) And the solid/wrinkled ribbon is definitely the most true to the box color- but the rosettes are pretty close too.
I moved on to the wine colored dye & same ribbons

This time I tried the low-water immersion technique from the website & skipped the salt.

You can see why the concentrated liquid would be a great way to go! (I wish I'd tried putting some of the liquid into a mister & trying it on paper! next time!) I just used one of those disposable glad containers. Since my silverware is stainless, I used that to push all the ribbon into the dye & it was fine.

I had a bit of a happy accident with the sheer woven rosettes when I realized I could use the spoon to just color the edges of the flowers!

In this shot you can see the fully-dyed, the white & the pink flowers with the edges dyed compared

And here's the finished group!

You can see the solid/wrinkled ribbon and the rosettes dyed true to the box, just like with the teal dye. The other ribbon is not as dark, but still pretty! I did let this sit overnight to see if the other ribbon would get darker, but it didn't!
So there you go- it's always fun to experiment with ribbon & color! I hope you've been inspired to try something a little different with YOUR May Arts ribbon!
If you haven't already, be sure to check out the May Arts blog & facebook page- there's always great inspiration (and lot's of giveaways!)!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by- I'm really hoping to remain on the May Arts design team- it's been a blast!