How to Dye Acrylic

I am very excited about dyeing acrylic! I experimented with many different ways of dyeing acrylic but from all of my tests I would say that the method of water, dye and acetone fingernail polish remover works the best. To see the other methods you can watch the video here: 

The best way I found to dye acrylic uses a dye like Rit dye. It can be found at  Walmart and stores like that. It is usually in the laundry detergent section. If you just use the dye and water you will get a tinted look to the acrylic like the pink glass look on the bracelets below. If you add the acetone you will get the deeper colors.

To prepare the dye, bring some regular water to 200 degrees. (It is said that this will open the pores of the acrylic but we found in our experimenting that it works just fine with no water. The water does help you cover more pieces though.)

When the water is hot pour 3 parts water, 1 part dye and 1 part acetone into a glass container. In our example we used 3/4 C. Water, 1/4 C. Dye and1/4 C. Acetone. 

We found that you want to use a glass container so as not to get other chemicals and colors sticking to your acrylic. (In this picture the acrylic took on the paint and chemicals from a solo cup.)

 

Once you have the ingredients mixed add the acrylic pieces. Make sure they are not overlapping, unless you want the overlapping design in the bottom piece. This could be a really cool design technique if you want it to happen, like making shapes on acrylic.

After adding the acrylic to the mix wait 10 minutes (longer if you want a deeper color).

Next fill a tub of hot soapy water, carefully put the pieces in the tup and rinse.

That is all there is to it! How did we do?

This pink was the same red dye used as the red picture below, except there was no acetone added to the water.

This was red dye with acetone and water.

This is black dye with acetone and water. It looks like a dark blue color on the acrylic. I love how it looks on the Stardust acrylic.

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