July 26, 2012

Dying Feathers: RIT dye

Isn't this image awesome... if I do say so myself - I have saturated the colour in photoshop.  It is the start of my RIT dye bath.  I learnt a few things in this process of dying my feathers, even though the above looks pretty don't add the dye first if your container is wet!  It stuck to the bottom!!  This is Navy dye can you believe?  The box says NAVY but the website colour guide says Blue-Violet when you click on Navy!!??  Not the colour I was chasing.

This is the second batch I dyed which was following the colour guide recipe - 1 cup hot water to 2 tablespoons navy dye.  It was very thick and the feathers got all gritty, once they were dyed I rinsed them out and they dried as above - still pretty.  The first time I dyed my feathers I just filled half my container with water and added about a tablespoon of dye, they didn't need rinsing.  They come out very skinny and shrivelled up so don't panic, they return to their former glory!  I see how dyeing can become addictive!  

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