Coloring Ostrich Plumes

All about flies Fly Tying
1

I have some tan ostrich plumes that I want to die dark olive. I tried using a green food color which did nothing. Does anyone have experience with coloring ostrich plumes?

:shock:

Greg

2

Greg,

I’ve used Kool-Aid and also regular dyes to dye different materials (never ostrich herl). How were you try to dye the ostrich herl, what techinque were you using?

Alberto

3

Hi

I heated Green food color and emersed the feathers overnight and used about 1/4 of the food color. I am currently trying it again but this time using the whole bottle of food color.

Greg

4

use kool aid.

http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/

5

Greg,

When I have dyed using Kool-Aid or a commercial dye, I always add some white vinegar to use as a fixative for the dye. For about 2 cups of prepared dye I’ll add a shot glass worth of white vinegar.

When you were using the food coloring, was the color not transferring to the feathers at all or was it just washing away. If it was washing away, the white vinegar should fix the problem.

Hope his helps,

Regards,

Alberto

6

This is the first time I’ve tried food color. Thanks for all of the great koolaid information. The problem is that the ostrich feathers are not taking any of the color.

Greg

7

Use Prismacolr Markers as you use the plumes. Works everytime and the colors are always right. Just color the one you are using at the time.

Gig

8

2 questions:

Does the kool aid dye fade away?
Is the Primsacolor permanent?

9

Lastchance,

The Kool-Aid dye does not fade away (I add vinegar to my dye batch to set the color).

Regards,

Alberto

10

Well it took the whole bottle of green food color but that did the trick. I didn’t use vinegar to set the color so we’ll see if the color washes o’ut. But then I expect I’ll loose the fly first.

Thanks
Greg

11

I guess you can only dye white or light colored feathers, etc. correct?