Here is what Julie and Karin actually did for the experiment, complete with oversized pictures provided in links so it doesn't make reading really really difficult ^-^

Mixing Dyes

Mixing solutions was a long and messy job. Julie did the grunt work like dealing with the dye powder, measuring them to perfection and labeling bottles. Karin did the careful measuring and calculations for amounts and watched them very nicely and then did most of the cleaning which took a long time.

Methyl Orange Dye- measured 100ml of Methyl Orange with a 1% concentration

Malachite Green Dye- 5 grams of Malachite Green powder added to 100ml of deionized water -5% concentration

Indigo Dye - 5 grams of indigo powder added to 100ml of deionized water - 5% concentration

Making Mordants

Mixing the mordants was basically equivallent to mixing the dyes, except it's with mordants being Cupric sulfate (CuSO4) and Iron(ll) sulfate (FeSO4). Again, Julie measured the powders and Karin dealt with the water.

Cupric Sulfate Mordant - 5g of Cupric sulfate added to 100ml of deionized water - 5% concentration

Iroon(ll) Sulfate Mordant - 5g of Ferrous sulfate added to 100ml of deionized water - 5% concentration

Boiling and Dyeing and Rinsing and Washing

The Orange and the green dyes were set to boil and test strips were added to both. While that was sitting for 10 minutes, the mordant baths and indigo dye were set up and set to boil.

The Orange and Green dyed strips were removed, the malachite green strip getting severely gunked with gelled dye on the sides of the beaker. Bother strips were rinsed and left to dry.

Stips were then added to the Indigo and the mordant baths. The indigo was left to sit for 10 minutes and the mordant bath strips were left for 20 minutes.

Indigo was removed, rinsed, and left to dry, the next day one strip was washed with soap and one with soap and bleech.

The strips from the mordant bath were removed after 20 minutes of soaking, wrung out and then both put into the Methyl Orange dye for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, they were rinsed and left to dry.

(Note that since Julie and Karin did not have Congo red or HCl, that they chose not to do the 3rd step in the procedure on the procedure page)

The technical parts of what we learned through observations and research can be found at Making Sense of the Experiment; Fabrics, Dyes, and Intermolecular Forces

#1 The Front Page

#2 The Procedure

#3 The Information