Angelina, a note about this material

Awhile back there was some discussion about Angelina being a substitute for LiteBrite or Crystal dub, or Angel Hair. I bought a number of packages of the stuff and feel it was a good bargain, however, yesterday I found that certain cements dissolve Angelina and it cuts or breaks where it is applied. I tested it with Flexament, Hard as Nails, and Superglue and all cut the material at the point of contact. I tested the same glues with Angel Hair and it did not dissolve or cut.

While this may not be a problem in many applications, it was yesterday when the material came out of the fly like a shedding dog. You will need to be careful in the application of glue when using Angelina.

That’s a good note. There are organic solvent and water based lacquers/varnishes. The organic solvents tend to do a number on various materials. For those I use this water based varnish obtainable at the usual craft outlets:

As you can see, I squirted some into a nail polish bottle (after cleaning it). It dries relatively quickly and has more “content” than the organic solvent stuff so it shrinks less when it is dry and it produces a nice clear thick glossy smooth finish… hmmm, maybe I’ll use it on some wet fly heads :wink:

I read an article last year in Fly Tyer about a guy who uses this stuff on poppers so it is tough but it will start to turn cloudy if immersed in water for hours on end. If that is an issue for some patterns, then I apply a coat of Sally’s to seal it. This is a pic of a chironomid with a couple of layers of the stuff. As you can see, you can really lay on a thick coat of it:

As an asside, I’ve been meaning to try some acetate floss hard bodies so maybe I’ll try that trick with the Angelina instead. Sally’s should melt it then into a hard layer.