Custom Colors at Home

[Guest]

Sometimes, no matter how hard we search in vain, we just can't find the colors we want for certain materials. You can waste many hours searching local shops, supply magazines, and on line for just the right material to suit your desire. Well, when the going gets tough, the tough go to thier kitchen!!

 

Dyeing your own materials is certainly nothing new to most of you, but one dyeing technique that yeilds incredible results is often overlooked by "do it yourselfers". I am speaking of the fantastic Tie-Dye. Tie dyeing clothing has long been popular with hippies, beatnics, rock and rollers, surf bums, and other youthful angst driven individuals for years. But, using the same technique to create a psychodelic wardrobe can produce great colors for the bench.

 

Tie-Dyeing for the bench was popularized by the legendary John Betts. Betts usde to create bands and stripes on a various array of materials. The technique is simple and once completed successfully, can quyickly become a tier's addiction.

 

Here's how you do it. First, select the material you want to dye. Next, place a peice of tubing, wooden dowel, etc, in your vice. The "dyeing rod" should be at least a 1/4" in diameter. Betts prefered using a peice of brass tubing with one end flattened to fit into the vice. Now, wrap the material you wish to dye very tightly with thread of floss. ( have used dental floss in past experiments and it worked just fine. waxed flosses seemed to tie tighter that thread and the wax helps repell the dye bath even more). Now, place the dyeing rod into the dye bath and dye as you normally would according to your manufacturer's instructions. The exposed areas of the material will dye nicely while the wrapped sections will remain unaffected.

 

This technique worked great on a chartreuse bucktail that I tie-dyed black. The result was an amazing flo. green banded black. Great for Deer Hair damsels!!!!

 

You can tie-dye any material you like: deer hair, quills, manes, zonkers, etc. Just remember that some materials dye better than others simply because of the texture and the nature of the material itself.

 

For those of you who enjoy dyeing your own custom blends and col;ors, give the ol' tie-dye trick a whirl! I think you will be most pleased with the end result!

 

Tight lines and happy dyeing!