Kool aid quills

[Dcap240]

I never thought kool aid would be such a powerful dye! I bought a big bag of white strung saddle for $2-$3 last time I was at cabelas to use for the quills. Did some experimenting and this is the results. The recipes I found are way too strong. I used 1 packet per cup of water and the recipes I found online call for 2 packets per cup of water. 2 minutes in the microwave with no vinegar. Rinsed them and let them soak in tap water for about 10 minutes hoping they would fade a little and they didn't fade at all as you can see. I threw a couple stripped peacock quills in with mixed results. Peacock took the red pretty well but the yellow and the blue didn't change much. I think when I try next time I will cut the recipe in half for both kool aid packets and time in the micro or maybe skip the microwave and just let them soak so I can keep an eye on them. I just used a mason jar with 2 cups of water and 2 kool aid packets. The red was black cherry, yellow was lemonade, and blue was blue raspberry lemonade. It took about an hour for everything including stripping the hackle quills by hand. Peacock was already stripped from my last experiment. I still have a lot of strung saddle and a bunch of kool aid so I'll have to try it again. Apparently green and orange makes olive so I'll have to try that one next time too. Red and yellow came out a lot brighter than I expected but maybe they will tie some decent flies? The red peacock is hard to see in the photo (upper left) but they came out a pretty good color for some red quill flies.

 

[Dcap240]

They're actually not as bad as I thought once they are wrapped:

The red is brighter than I would like but I think the yellow will make some good cahills and sulphurs.

 

[STONEMAN]

Will they hold their color after a good soaking?

 

[Dcap240]

Yeah. I soaked them for about 10 minutes to try to get them to fade and the water was perfectly clear. I'll probably coat them in a little head cement or varnish anyway.

 

[Rolf]

Thanks for the lesson/s. I appreciate it.

 

[GenCon]

Great idea. Your flies look very nice as well.

GC

 

[Dcap240]

I let this one soak in a cup of water overnight and it didn't fade at all.

 

[blueheron]

Don't drink the purple koolaid, other than that pretty slick idea.
Dries don't get all that wet anyway but I am sorta surprised they don't bleed more.

 

[Dcap240]

Got a pretty good olive and brown/olive brown today by mixing green (lemon lime) and orange.

Olive is 1 green to 1/2 orange (2:1)
Brown is 1 and 1 green and orange
I threw some light yellow goose biots in the dye bath and they came out pretty good too.

I'm not sure but I think maybe rinsing and soaking them in cold water helped to set the color. One of the articles I read about kool aid dying said to use vinegar and another article said you don't need vinegar because of how acidic kool aid already is. But anyway I am surprised at how well it worked. Makes you wonder what in the world is in that stuff.

 

[lv2nymph]

Nice job Dc. They look great, the brown & olive really came out nice. Cool looking ties too. I've read about dying with kool aid but never tried it.

 

[kelso2340]

Dcap sorry but its kinda difficult to tell in the pics, after dying did the quills keep that black/dark streak down the side that makes the ribbing look great?

 

[Dcap240]

The peacock quills? Yes they did. I didn't bleach them or anything they were just their natural color to start with. Here's a pic of a fly tied with one of the red peacock quills. I know the pics suck, my camera won't even focus on a fly so I just use my iphone. I just wanted to be able to show the color. You can kinda see the black edge in this pick.

 

[Jake41]

That red quill looks like it would make a nice spinner body.

 

[Dcap240]

Here ya go

 

[Dcap240]

Here's another spinner tied with one of the brown quills

Hook: 14 dry fly
Thread: UTC 70 Dark Brown
Tails: Dark Dun Fibettes
Abdomen: Brown Quill
Wing: Natural CDC Trimmed
Thorax: Rusty Spinner Superfine
Back: Orange 2mm Foam

 

[Dcap240]

Here's another one I tied last night
Spent Sulphur

 

[GenCon]

Nice looking fly Dcap. Is that foam on the thorax?

GC

 

[Dcap240]

Thanks. Yes it's yellow 2mm foam. It'll help me see it and I figure ever little bit to help it float counts.