Dying the Grand Drape

[theILLUMINATEDfrog]

I'm a lighting guy and never paid much attention to things like this...

how would one go about dying the grand drape? Is this something that can be done yourself or is it worth paying a professional? Or can it even be done at all? I'd just like to go Black with it, so color to color shouldn't be a problem as far as I can imagine.

[rcal]

I would ask around to see if anyone had done it before, but I can bet that the only person who will say 'yes' is the old hippy noise boy, and you really don't want tie-died drapes.
I'm the technical manager at my venue, and have been for several years, we have a fairly hefty budget and would buy anything like that, but before I reached the dizzying heights of middle management I worked in a theatre where scenic artists tried to do it, and it didn't really come out right, or at all, large holes had appeared where there used to be a lovely set of velvet drapes.
I would hire someone who knew what they were doing, its gotta look good!

[Van]

This is not a project you want to try to do yourself. Contact Rose Brand, Norcostco and possibly Texas Scenic. The steps required to accomplish this job may make purchasing a new drape the more cost efficient option.
You would need to remove the chain, remove guide loops, if it's an Austrian, Wash and rinse serveral times to remove any flame retardant chemicals, possibly bleach to remove the previous dye, then dye like crazy and hope to come up with a decent color. Then dry, reinstall hardware, re apply fire retardant.
This is looking to be a VERY expensive project.

[derekleffew]

Besides what Van said, some practicalities:

1. Where are you going to find a vessel large enough? Swimming pool?
2. How are you going to heat to boiling the (guessing) 300-500 gallons of water required?
3. Black is actually one of the most difficult colors to dye. Also a black main curtain doesn't do very much to enhance a space. And there are a thousand different shades of black.
4. If a fabric has faded to the point you think it needs to be redyed, the fibers have most likely deteriorated also.
5. Flame retardant!

[Footer]

Originally Posted by derekleffew

Besides what Van said, some practicalities:

1. Where are you going to find a vessel large enough? Swimming pool?
2. How are you going to heat to boiling the (guessing) 300-500 gallons of water required?
3. Black is actually one of the most difficult colors to dye. Also a black main curtain doesn't do very much to enhance a space. And there are a thousand different shades of black.
4. If a fabric has faded to the point you think it needs to be redyed, the fibers have most likely deteriorated also.
5. Flame retardant!

I did this a few years back to a white scrim. We put a 60 gallon corregated trough type thing on top of a stove and turned all burners up to high. Dumped in 4 bottles of black dye and 2 bottles of navy dye. It worked.... kinda. We fireproofed it with flamex.

This was simpler because it was a scrim. A velour main rag with usually 100% fulness is a completly other beast. Added to that, as stated above, true black is very hard to dye.

Buy a new grand if you want it to be black. I don't know why you would want it to be black, but to each their own.