I thought I’d share a bit about my hand dyeing process of the nylon plastic pieces. I buy them as white unpolished pieces. I use some 3M polishing papers to smooth them out a bit and remove loose bits of nylon powder. The 4000 grit paper seems to work well for me. Dyeing actually works better with texture and lots of surface area, so I’m not interested in making them super smooth.

For dyeing, I usually use the Jacquard iDye Poly dyes and I only need 1/4 teaspoon for my small pot. I’ve also used the Rit Dyemore dyes but I like the powder form of IDye Poly better. One reason is that I find it’s easier to mix colors with the powders. Chopsticks and dental floss are my friends for dyeing. Also, I work on my outdoor patio to avoid creating a big kitchen mess if I spill dye.

For most colors, it only takes about 10 minutes max to get good saturation. Some go even quicker. I also like to do gradient dyeing. For that, I hang the earrings off a platform and gradually change the height by removing pieces of wood to lower the earrings at each phase. For more complicated gradient effects, like a sunrise color change, I use different pots and colors for each phase of color, starting with the lightest color.

One thing I like about dyeing is that once the colors are in, they’re in and there’s no bleeding of dye after just a good rinse. The pieces can just dry in air and you can work with them even if they are slightly damp. The dye won’t come off with touch.