Mordants and Assistants
- Potassium Alum: The standard alum mordant: potassium aluminum sulfate,, hydrated. Granular form, easy to handle.
- Calcium Carbonate - Finely ground limestone - low magnesium - high calcium.
- Calcium Hydroxide - AKA hydrated or slaked lime. High purity - low in magnesium. Highly alkaline - handle with care.
- Citric Acid - Safe acid fixative for wool fibers and acid mediums. Granular, dissolves in water.
- Copper Sulfate - The standard copper mordant: cupric sulfate pentahydrate; common name: blue vitriol. Poisonous Handle with care, see warning label.
- Cream of Tartar - Potassium bitartrate; dye assistant most often used with alum and tin mordants on wool and silk.
- Ferrous Sulfate - The standard iron mordant: ferrous sulfate heptahydrate; common names are copperas and green vitriol. Poisonous: Handle with care, see warning label.
- Soda Ash - Anhydrous sodium carbonate; Chemically the same as washing or sal soda, but 2.5 times stronger. Highly alkaline; handle with care
- Sodium Sulfate, Anhydrous - Chemically the same as glauber's salts, except more concentrated (2 1/4 times stronger).
- SpectraliteŽ: A brand name for thiourea dioxide; used as a reducing agent in indigo dye vats; and as a bleach (stripping agent) to remove some kinds of synthetic dyes. Strong reducing agent, handle with care.
- Tara Powder: Ground seed pods of the plant Caesalpinia spinosa; about 50% tannin; a good neutral-colored source of tannin for mordanting cotton, logwood blacks, etc
- Tartaric Acid: Chemically similar to cream of tartar, but shifts pH more toward acidic.
- Tin (Stannous Chloride): Caustic, handle with care, see warning label.
- Zinc Dust:Finely powdered zinc metal. Flammable, toxic if ingested. Store away from acids & oxidizing agents
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