Artwork - Using Dyes on Acetate
Hello Lola, From the looks of the video, this will be a perfect art project. The alcohol-based dyes won't dissolve the Acetate, and the dyes will flow, just like the video. Because the alcohol won't affect the Acetate, drying will be a little different. Your work table will have to be level, and you'll have to leave the finished piece right where you make it, for maybe a half hour. Otherwise it will easily run and drip (Although come to think of it, that might make for an interesting pattern of waves . . .) Anyway, the dyes will be especially fragile. They will not be "in" the Acetate at all, they will always be "on" the Acetate. This means they will be easily scratched. You'll probably need to protect the finished piece with another layer of Acetate. It looks like a really wonderful technique. It would be interesting to see how the alcohol-based dyes interact with vinegar-based dyes. The latter actually chemically react with Acetate.
Regarding vinegar-based dyes - - whoops, my age is showing here! Back in the day (mid-1960’s), black & white film was much cheaper than color film; and you could process it at home. This was true of regular films; and there were also B&W slide films, movie films, and specialty such as infrared and very low-light films. As a kid, I worked with them all. A bunch of us friends were shooting a (B&W) film that was a total rip-off of Star Trek. And we needed a special effect for the transporter. The (obvious to me) solution was to paint the effect onto our film, cell by cell. But regular paint was too opaque to work, and the Acetate film base was impervious to almost everything with dyes. Our photography supplier Mr. Charlesworth, remembered that in his youth (about 40 years previous), he painted color onto B&W slides. They were travel photos, and were used sometimes in place of newsreels. Either were used before showing the main movies at the Fox Theater. He came up with a dozen colors of (to us) very expensive Handschiegl dyes, made just for movie film. I applied the dyes frame by frame, using a big magnifying glass, and brushes with only three to five bristles on them. The best source of bristles was our dog Fang, who looked forward to frequent brushing. Because the acetic acid would actually penetrate the Acetate, it would cause severe curling as it dried. I learned how to tape it down flat (safely), and be patient as the film cured overnight - - or sometimes two nights. Also if I spilled the bottle on the film by accident, it was a goner. Any kind of cleaning up would separate the original photographic image off the film. My mother also tried dissolving Rit fabric dyes in white vinegar for me. To get any kind of color takes several days, and a decent amount of shaking the bottle several times a day. And it is best to filter afterward - - Kleenex, paper towels, and a couple coffee filters make a great ‘sandwich’ for decent speed filtering. The result was a more faint dye, that worked well, but simply broadened my color palette. We couldn’t match the intense colors of the dyes from Mr. Charlesworth. And then came along Parker Felt Tip pens! A whole series of pens that smelled of vinegar, and were carnival-intense colors. I learned how to sharpen the felt-tip for use on 8-mm film. I also usually had to use two coats, because they were fainter than the Handschiegl dyes. I also learned that if I used a somewhat dull X-Acto knife, I could abrade the film surface. The nicks & checks I put in the film would take dye differently. The effects were pretty cool. Then - - Summer ended. We never finished the project. Such is how youth is spent.
Wow. I really have gone off on a tangent, haven’t I? I at least hope you found this interesting.
P.S. Clear spray coatings my not react with Acetate the way you think. It may produce a “crystalline” pattern; it may dissolve the Acetate; it may dry well and good, but peel off the Acetate when you bend it. It all depends on the chemicals in the can. Best to test on a scrap first.