Prismacolor

[BiggyD 0]

Prismacolors come in a huge variety of colors. I'm sure someone out there has had the idea of purchasing all light colored materials and coloring them with these inks.So far I've used them very successfully with thread, floss, and antron. I'm a beginner and I think this might be a great way to save money. A single spool of white thread, a single hackle skin of wight feather, a single white biot, hurls bleached white, ...etc . I've never tried hurls or feathers because all I've got is all colored or natural already and the inks don't work so well on these. Before I try to purchase some other light or white materials I like to get some input on this concept. Has anyone tried this? does it work well with feathers? And do you find that the colors hold up well? How does this affect dry fly materials?

[GC59 0]

Saving money is a great reason. A better one is matching the current bait in the water. I always have a few sharpies with me to color white materials to match that bait.

[utyer 0]

Almost 20 years ago, I bought a full set of markers from a garage sale along with a few thousand fly tying hooks. Since then, I never buy anything but light yellow, cream or white threads. The markers do a great job, on many things. I make variegated chenille by twisting the chenille and drawing a line down one half with a darker marker, and untwist and wrap. Most of my two tone flies (like the Bitch Creek,) are simply colored with markers. Sharpies work for the standard colors, but permanent artist markers like Prismacolor give you a lot more shades. They don't really do a great job with light shades but medium to dark shads work fine.

[SilverCreek 0]

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/prismacolor-brush-tip-markers

http://www.dickblick.com/products/prismacolor-premier-double-ended-art-markers/

[Philly 0]

I've used them on thread, hackle, marabou and chenille when needed. Mostly I use them on foam. With feathers you need to let them dry before you wrap them.

This is one tied with white chenille that I was able to turn into a fire tiger pattern.

 

[Cold 0]

I only have a very few (need to get more), but one of my favorite uses is to color spun/stacked deer hair. Typically, if I see a really nice patch of hair, I'll get it, but this tends to give me more hair in natural than any dyed color. With the markers, I can dab it on the trimmed hair to help it match the color scheme of the rest of the fly. It's not always perfect, but it's closer than it was as a natural colored hair.