A cheeky inquiry with Gareth at Cliff-Harvey Angling - about paying for some materials to be dyed in picric - led him to kindly offer to send me some.
As soon as it arrived, I set about transferring the liquid into a larger container. As there were still some undissolved crystals in the bottom, I knew I could increase the volume of liquid, allowing me to dye larger items.
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| L-R Picric dyed melanistic, dyed yellow, natural and natural dyed picric |
I only had a couple of materials I really wanted to dye, these being deer hair and heron herl. Once I got started I couldn't help but put more stuff in the solution. In the end I dyed half a dun grizzle cape, a normal and melanistic pheasant tail feather and a bleached elk hair patch along with the intended deer hair and heron herl.
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| Whiting dun grizzle dyed in picric |
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| A close-up |
The results were mixed, the heron didn't turn the expected olive shade, however the deer hair went better, it turned out to be absolutely right on the money in colour for the wing in the mohican mayfly.
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| The heron herl didn't really take on much colour, despite leaving it in the solution for several days |
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| Picric dyed roe deer |
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| Picric dyed deer, natural roe and bleached elk dyed in picric |
After the initial lot of materials I moved onto half a squirrel skin, some peacock eyes and a piece of woodchuck with good results.
Thanks to Gareth for sending me the picric solution to experiment with.
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