I was gonna post this in Dan's koolaid dyeing thread, but thought it better as a separate effort since it is a somewhat different process.
I"ve never had success with koolaid, but i have with acid dyes, so i'll give my perspective on those. Simply an alternative to koolaid.
The dyes are pretty cheap, but not as cheap as koolaid.
One half oz jar of jacquard acid dye will cost about $5.50 shipped. In terms of how much that will dye, all the examples below used less than one teaspoon of dye in the bath.
One half oz jar will dye about 4lbs of material i believe, though you'll have to check the jacquard dyeing protocol to confirm that.
All the dye examples below came from jacquard except the magenta, which was from another seller on ebay (jacquard do not have a magenta dye)
Everything started off natural white
Lilac duck quills
Magenta hackle and snow shoe rabbit foot.
olive (bottom) and brown wool
I also did some amherst tail red, but have no photo.
The entire process from start to finish (not including drying) takes about 20-30 mins.
Dyes are available from Dharma trading, Fly Dye and ebay - these are my main sources.
Hope this helps those who are thinking about dyeing.
I started because i wanted lilac duck quills for the Jennie Lind wet fly, and noone had any; EVER. So i did my own.
Heres some of the stuff i've dyed, used in flies.
Jennie Lind - Lilac quills
Magenta Hackles - Throat hackle on the Wilkinson. I couldnt find magenta hackles anywhere, so again, my hand was forced to dye my own
Olive and brown wool - Body on the Lady Caroline, though its hard to see, is a blend of brown and olive wool. I wanted to be able to get my own shade in the wool, not some predyed shades.
Red Amherst - part of the wing on this Hammer fly i designed myself.
I"ve never had success with koolaid, but i have with acid dyes, so i'll give my perspective on those. Simply an alternative to koolaid.
The dyes are pretty cheap, but not as cheap as koolaid.
One half oz jar of jacquard acid dye will cost about $5.50 shipped. In terms of how much that will dye, all the examples below used less than one teaspoon of dye in the bath.
One half oz jar will dye about 4lbs of material i believe, though you'll have to check the jacquard dyeing protocol to confirm that.
All the dye examples below came from jacquard except the magenta, which was from another seller on ebay (jacquard do not have a magenta dye)
Everything started off natural white
Lilac duck quills
Magenta hackle and snow shoe rabbit foot.
olive (bottom) and brown wool
I also did some amherst tail red, but have no photo.
The entire process from start to finish (not including drying) takes about 20-30 mins.
Dyes are available from Dharma trading, Fly Dye and ebay - these are my main sources.
Hope this helps those who are thinking about dyeing.
I started because i wanted lilac duck quills for the Jennie Lind wet fly, and noone had any; EVER. So i did my own.
Heres some of the stuff i've dyed, used in flies.
Jennie Lind - Lilac quills
Magenta Hackles - Throat hackle on the Wilkinson. I couldnt find magenta hackles anywhere, so again, my hand was forced to dye my own
Olive and brown wool - Body on the Lady Caroline, though its hard to see, is a blend of brown and olive wool. I wanted to be able to get my own shade in the wool, not some predyed shades.
Red Amherst - part of the wing on this Hammer fly i designed myself.
Last edited:
