Dying feathers

[mcneishm]

I tried dying some turkey wing primaries with so-so results. I used Rit dye, either dark green or dark brown. In either case, the feather turned out OK but were not exactly what I wanted, mostly too dark. Got some additional colors, Apple Green and Yellow. I figure I could mix it to find a a suitable olive result as well as an olive-brown result.

I had better results with pheasant tail feathers, a lot closer to what I wanted.

Anyway, I have a couple of turkey wings to mess with and a full **** pheasant tail so I can test some combinations. For those with experience doing this, do you have any recipes or instructions to share?

 

[sandfly]

you mean like these??

 

[mcneishm]

Yes. Exactly. I'm thinking my mistake had to do with the length of time in the dye bath.

 

[FrequentTyer]

This will probably not be terribly helpful, but may give you some ideas. I use the following Rit dyes to make olive:

1 part kelly green
1 part brown
1/4 part yellow

I am not too careful about measuring, but a part is usually about 1/8 teaspoon for about a coffee mug of water. I'll play with the proportions of green and brown to vary from olive to olive brown. I have been able to scale the measurements up to larger volumes without problems.

Microwave till hot, add a splash of vinegar and mix. I will usually run a few test feathers for time, but it almost always turns out to be 5 to 10 minutes.

Play with it one feather at a time till you get what you want. Also think about layering colors to get effects. For example, dye the feathers yellow first, then green/brown in a second run. You can get some interesting effects that way. And make sure you keep notes so you can recreate the same color.