Dying the mermaid tail: Samples.

Before any fabric could be dyed, samples and burn tests had to take place first. The burn test allowed us to determine what fabric it is being worked with, which is turned meant we could pick the correct type of dye for the fabric.
The results of the burn tests are as follows:

White fabric: crushable bead, melted, black smoke, bad smell, Fiona reckoned theres probably a bit of nylon in there somewhere.
Green fabric: really flickery flame, same reaction as the white material but had a different, sweeter smell.

Once it was figured out that disperse dying would be required the hot water set up was arranged and samples were made, using a colour palette of blues, greens and yellows. After testing samples of the solo colours, I mixed up some combinations to create in between shades as at this point i decided to attempt an ombre effect through the tail, so use of middle shades would be useful.

The next step in the dying process will be to see the results of the samples and decide on which colour will be used.