"It's a little bit like being a forensic scientist," says Liz Hodgkinson.
She is a dye house manager. "But there's also a very creative side to this
job. I mean, you are actually creating color."
Wondering how you can put forensic scientist and artist into the same job
description? Hodgkinson doesn't wonder, she knows. She is a textile color
chemist and those are just two of the things she gets to do on a daily basis.
Hodgkinson first got interested in textile color chemistry on a fluke.
"Initially, I was going to go to university and go into home economics,"
says Hodgkinson. "I always loved sewing and fabric and things like that. As
it turned out, finances weren't going to allow me to go to university, so
I started looking around and found textile technology.
"It wasn't sewing or designing clothes, but it was working with fabrics,
and it seemed very interesting to me. Then, when I got involved in the dyeing
side of it, there was some creativity to it and also the investigative side."
That was more than 30 years ago. She has been with it ever since.
"I was working as a lab technician, matching colors, before I was promoted
to lab manager," Hodgkinson says. "Then I worked at a dyestuff manufacturer
doing technical customer service."
Her position as a technical customer service representative allowed her
to travel to her clients' locations to troubleshoot problems with machinery
and chemicals. She got to know many dye house managers through this line of
work. Eventually, she was offered a position as a dye house manager by one
of her customers. She accepted.
"This kind of work is very interesting. Every day is something different.
Dyeing itself is not an exact science. The quality of our water, the ambient
temperature of the room, there are many things that can go wrong," Hodgkinson
explains.
"You may have a seal going out that you don't know is going, so you don't
get the flow you need and the color will not be exact. There are so many things
you can't see. You have to thoroughly investigate it. You can't just assume
it's operator error."
Then there's the chemistry of it all.
"You have to know why you are adding acetic acid to this or why we are
running it at one degree Fahrenheit," Hodgkinson says. "But a lot of that
comes with experience. Now I just know it."
As a dye house manager, Hodgkinson puts in 12- or 13-hour days. But she
has been able to arrange her schedule so that she only works four days a week.
She doesn't mind the long hours. The only thing she minds is the paperwork.
"The paperwork, data processing," Hodgkinson says. "Those are the only
parts I really don't like at all. But every dye lot has to be entered. So
we know what we did and can reproduce it next time without just guessing."
Gary J. Santos graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
with a degree in biology. His brother graduated with a degree in textile chemistry.
Much to his surprise, after graduation when the phone started ringing with
job offers, Santos found they were mostly for his brother.
Santos quickly rethought his career plans and returned to school for a
degree in textile chemistry. Then his phone started to ring, too.
"I had much better job prospects in this field than in biology," Santos
says.
That was then and this is now. Many of the companies making
those job offers have closed up shop or moved their operations overseas.
"The textile industry is definitely moving out of the U.S.," Santos says.
But he is sticking with it. He likes the routine of his day and the fact
that as a dyer, he can come in, work his shift and go home.
"I come in and first thing in the morning I get everything started. I make
sure all the machines are running. Shades have to be matched and new production
has to be started," Santos explains. "Then later, I am looking at samples
and writing recipes for new production."
Sound interesting? David Hinks thought so, too.
Hinks is an assistant professor in the college of textiles at North Carolina
State University. He began his research in textiles before he even started
a formal education in the subject.
"I grew up in a city in England that had a large textile research facility,
and I began my career in textile color chemistry there before I started college,"
Hinks explains. "For me, color is a fascinating, multidisciplinary area that
combines elements of chemistry, physics and psychology, to name a few.
"Every single product sold is colored. And somewhere during the production,
the color must be controlled in some way. This is particularly important in
the textiles apparel industry, where the product is worn by the consumer,"
says Hinks. "People tend to be extremely sensitive about what colors they
wear. And color control of textile materials is a highly challenging area."
Hinks wants to make certain anyone considering a career as a textile color
chemist does not enter into it too lightly, however. It's not just fun creating
color. It's hard work.
"The demands for high quality these days for all products means that the
textile color chemist is required to have a knowledge of the chemistry and
physical properties of different things: the chemistry and physical properties
of colorants; color science, which is concerned with how we see color; color
phenomena, such as the effect of lighting variability on color appearance;
and color measurement, which is how we are able to use mathematics and sophisticated
equipment to measure how light reflects on objects."
Hinks finds textile color chemistry fascinating. "Its applicability to
everyday life, and that it is highly cross-functional. Also, color vision
phenomena, such as why certain colors change dramatically under different
light sources, how the eye can be fooled into seeing or not seeing something!
"Color is something most of us are fortunate enough to live with every
waking moment of our lives," says Hinks. "To study color and how to control
it is therefore very relevant. And when you consider applications to real-world
products...it is easy to see why it's an area worth considering as a career
and a field of interesting study."