Dying capes

[Lochan_load]

After a couple of texts from Robbie thought I'd have a go at dying some French partridge sunburst for mayflies. Thought I had a whole bag, turns out I only had ten feathers  :roll: did half and left the rest natural. Bit of a waste of a dye bath so did some seals fur as well. One started  a mix of all sorts with grey olive yellow and even a hint of orange. I'd mixed it to try and make a cow sing colour but it wasn't what I wanted so threw that in with a lump of standard olive seals fur sub. Pictures below. All dyed well, the mixed seals fur cane out really well and was pretty much the cow dung colour I'd wanted a while back  :lol: and the olive went a kind of rich yellowy brown, it's not as brown as it appears in the picture. Robbie I reckon iron blue dun dyed sunburst would give the woigo colour you fancy........I might have a go and let you know. I'll post up the mayflies when I get round to tying them [attachimg=1]

[Lochan_load]

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[Robbie]

The mixed seals fur looks really nice Andy, as do the feathers. Going to have to get me some sunburst dye.

[Lochan_load]

Doing the blue sun stuff just now but I put a tiny bit of fiery brown in and think it's taken over....more brown seals fur coming up! The sunburst on white makes a very bright sunburst but on brown feathers it gives a very nice golden olive colour.

[Lochan_load]

The blue dun seals fur just sooked up all the brown  :roll: anyways hot this blue dun cape off eBay.....to sunburst or not to sunburst that is the question!!
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[Robbie]

How did the brown dun seals fur come out? Hopefully its still a useful colour.

That's a great price for a Metz cape, would it be worth cutting it in half or trying a few loose feathers first?

Out of interest are you using those halckes for palmering, head hackles or both?

[Lochan_load]

It came out fine Robbie but just took in all the brown pigment so came out a dark brown, it's in the subbing box so will get used for something.
That's a good shout will probably half it and keep some original, could be a handy colour to have. I just watched it on eBay and put in a last minute bid (5secs to go!) have to play the long game a bit but you can get bargains. And yeah I'll use them for both, these good quality hen are somewhere one between a cock/hen so make excellent body hackle. Stiff stem means they Palmer well but the slightly softer feather means they sweep back a bit better and have a bit more movement

[Lochan_load]

Just bit the bullet and dyed the whole thing, in truth it wasn't the best Metz hen cape I've had but suppose that's the chance you take on fleabay. Dyed it with just straight sunburst dye, came out pretty well, some variation but it was a natural dun cape so to be expected, the colour was a rich golden olive and so reckon you could class it as the hyper fashionable woigo! Knocked out a quick Zulu before work to see how it was on a fly.
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[pedropete]

that looks nice andy,mibby on a jazzed up katie var too.

[Lochan_load]

Yeah totally, Stan headly recommends a Zulu with the woigo muddled head, thought I'd give it a go with the head hackle. It's probably just another handy colour to have to try In the box. It's one of those that'll show up well in the water