Quills

[Crosby]

LARRY- Do you know anything about dyeing them?? I assume that I would have to bleach them and then dye them--- hoping that the bleach didn't mess them up. What a nifty midge body.

[steeliesonafly]

Crosby,
I have worked with quills for many years. There are alot of things you can do. If you are using road kill! Clean them good with dish soap in warm water for a few hours. Go in and agitate them to clean off the natural grease they have on them. Then if you want to color them. Go to the fabric store and get some rite dye. follow the package directions and dye them. You can get any range of color you want. I use to use the quills for making indian quill work. It is almost a lost art in the Indian culture and not many people do this any more, but it was what they used to do before beads where available. There are a lot of natural coloring agents out there too! I could go on for hours on this, but all you need to know is just the short part of this. I used to do the traditional soaking of the quills in my mouth when working on these but a close friend of mine found out that the rite dye will shut down your Kidneys when doing to much of this by soaking them in your mouth. Needless to say, you can still soak them in a pot of water to make them more pliable. You can use the guard hairs as well as the quills. They make some great fly's. If you have any questions, just write me back. I have done this for close to twenty years, and can get you lots of information on ancient history and dyes that the native american indians used, from berries on down to onions skins. Beautiful colors, but a lot of work. I can tell you what books to get on this also.....