Discharge paste is a reducing agent for safely removing colour from natural fibers, including silk. It removes most fiber reactive dyes, direct dyes, and some acid dyes. It is thick enough to apply by block print, brush, silk-screen, stencil, etc. Apply the paste to your fabric, let it dry and iron it or steam in a steamer for 10 minutes or so, until it stops discharging. Discharge Paste does not always remove all of the color; it depends on the dye and the color to which it is applied. It will, however, usually lighten the color enough for over dyeing. Better yet, it can be used for creating interesting negative image effects. Use in silk painting and tie-dye: paint on retied, dyed garments after they have dried for great effects. Make colour discharge ink by adding colour pigment concentrates to discharge paste. This will modify the garment color by discharging the garment colour and replacing it with the new ink color. In simple terms, the discharge ink “bleaches” out the dye in the garment, thus allowing the pigment in the ink to absorb into the fibers. Directions: Screen print or apply to fabric with a brush. When paste is dry, iron it on appropriate fabric setting . Colour will leave the fabric at this stage. Then wash your fabric in a good detergent like Synthrapol, to restore softness. As there are occasional fiber reactive colours, which are not susceptible to colour removal, test samples should be prepared prior to production runs. Colour separation printing with discharge inks is best done on dark coloured garments. The chemistry of the ink will actually remove dye colour from the garment while simultaneously adding its own colour. Like water-based inks, a well-printed discharge print is very soft and cannot be felt on the garment.