How To Make Thickened Water or Thickened Chemical Water

I’ve had several questions about how to make thickened water or thickened chemical water to use in tie dyeing. I thought I would share the process that I use.

The items that you will need are:

• Water

• Urea Dharma's Urea

• Sodium Alginate https://amzn.to/2EkHoZ

• Measuring cups and spoons

• Container to mix the chemical water

• Blender of some kind - I use an immersion blender

The only difference between thickened water and thickened chemical water is that when Urea is added to thickened water, it becomes thickened chemical water. Urea is a humectant and is useful to help keep the fabric from drying out while the item is processing. I personally use Urea in all of my liquid dye because of where I live. I live in a location that gets very hot during the summer, and so using Urea in my liquid dye is just a year-round habit. However, there are a lot of tie dyers who don’t use Urea, and don’t have any issues. Therefore the decision is up to you whether you add it or not. If you would like some more information about Urea in tie dyeing, here is a link to another one of my blog posts about the subject: Urea in tie dyeing

The recipe that I am using for thickened water is:

• 1 quart water (1 quart = 4 cups)

• 3/4 cup of Urea

• 1-4 teaspoons of Sodium Alginate

1. Add the Urea to your mixing container.

2. Add a small amount of the water to the container. (I used room temperature water)

3. Stir the Urea until the Urea is totally dissolved into the water. (I used a plastic spoon to mix)

4. Gradually add the remaining water and stir.

5. Add the Sodium Alginate a small amount at a time.

6. Blend with the blender.

7. Once the Sodium Alginate is dissolved in the solution, refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

When you first add the Sodium Alginate to the water, it will usually just float on top. It really is essential to have some kind of a blender to get it to dissolve into the solution. You don’t want any chunks of Sodium Alginate remaining.

It is also important to add the Sodium Alginate a little at a time. If you are using the thickened water for tie dyeing, 1-2 teaspoons is probably plenty to add. However, if you are using the thickened chemical water for dye painting, you will probably want to use 3-4 teaspoons. The water or chemical water will continue to thicken, especially when placed in the refrigerator overnight. If you would like the water thicker, you can add more Sodium Alginate later.

You can use either the thickened water or thickened chemical water in an area that you would like to remain white on a shirt, and it will help slow down the adjacent dye colors from creeping into that area. You can also use either of the thickened waters to mix dye for tie dyeing. If you would like the dye that you apply to a shirt to not move and spread as much, you can mix the dye using thickened chemical water. You can also paint with thickened dye. The thickened dye for tie dyeing should be a little thinner than that used for painting. If you are tie dyeing with it, you still want the dye to soak into the shirt and not just remain on top of the fabric.

Before I use the thickened chemical water to mix my dye, I usually remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature.

Below I have added a link to my YouTube tutorial video showing how I mixed some thickened chemical water for painting.