Dyeing

Just began dyeing some feathers and came up with a system that works for me.

Since I only wanted to dye a few feathers and not waste a bunch of the dye this is how I did it. This using RIT powder dyes.

Preparing the dye:
Got some small canning jars (jelly size).
Heated up some water in the teakettle.
Opened the pack of dye and put it into the jar.
Poured in the heated (not boiling) water and stirred.
Let cool and put on lit.
Labeled the jar.

Using the dye:
Put about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of water in pot large enough for the feathers. Heat until just starting to boil and reduce heat to lowest setting.

Opened the previously prepared dye and used a plastic pipet (a soda straw would work too) and put one or two pipetfuls(sp) into the pot. Since I was mixing colors I did the same for the other color. For instance, I wanted a 'claret' and used 2 pipetfuls of Wine and 2 pipetfuls of Dk. Brown.

Stir the mix.

Dye a sample to check the color.

Adjust as required (I had to add more water to thin down the mix when it was too strong or add more of one of the dyes to alter the mix) A little goes a long way.

When satisfied with the color, put in the feathers.

This amount of water & dye did about a dozen duck quills for me. It looked like it may be able to do more, but that is all I needed.

Rinse off the feathers and dry on newspaper or use hair dryer.

The remaining dye concentrate in the jar will last a long time. I have some jars of dye for over a year and a half and they still do the job.

I found this to be an economical way to be able to custom color a few feathers.

Don't know if this will work with Veniard dyes. I have some and will try it soon.

One thing I have found is that it is hard to find the colors of RIT dye in the local stores. They have a few colors but never seem to have the ones needed.

Anyway, hope this is helpful info.

Bob

W