To Dye Yellow
I will begin with yellow, the most useful colour in general for the
gentle craft. Put your crucible on a slow fire nearly full of water, or
say half full, for the first trial. Take a tea cup, and into it put a
table-spoonful of the best turmeric, pour over it some warm water, and
stir it well with a clean piece of fire wood; when the water begins to
simmer in the pot, put in the ingredient out of the cup, and stir it
well with a piece of stick; have a second crucible, about half full of
soft water, and boil it, into this put two table-spoonfuls of ground
alum and one tea-spoonful of crystal of tartar, while these are boiling
and perfectly dissolved, put into it your hackles or hair, and boil
gently for an hour or half an hour; take off your pots and enter the
hackles into the yellow dye out of the liquor into which you put the
alum and tartar, and boil them very slowly for an hour, taking them out
at intervals to see the shade you require; if too pale you must put more
turmeric in, and if too heavy in shade the next trial, put in less, and
do the same with all colours till you please your own eye. When they are
the proper colour, take them out and wash them in soap and hot water.
Draw them evenly through your fingers in the bunch, and let them dry, as
this keeps them in shape.
There are three or four ways to dye yellow by changing the stuff. Fill
your pots nearly full of soft water, and put into one the tartar and
alum, and into the other two or three handfuls of yellow wood, which
must be boiled slowly for three or four hours; when it is well boiled,
strain off the liquor from the wood into a basin, and throw the wood
away; put the dyeing liquor into the pot again, and when boiling take
out the hackles from the mordant of tartar and alum and put them into
the yellow dye, let them boil gently for some time till the yellow
colour has entered the hackles or hair, then take them out and wash them
in soap and water, straighten them between the fingers, and let them
dry; take them in the right hand and strike them on the fore-finger of
the left till they are quite dry.
By boiling two handfuls of fustic and a table-spoonful of turmeric
together, and repeating the above process, there will be produced a
golden yellow, which is very good for fly making. There must not be too
much alum used, neither must the ingredients be boiled too long. Persian
berries, bruised and boiled slowly, with a spoonful of turmeric,
produces a good yellow; and an ingredient called weld, boiled as before,
and adding the alum, is a good dye for yellow,--indeed, the weld is the
best dye, if care is taken with it.
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To Dye BrownPrevious:
The Art Of Dyeing Fishing Colours Which Are Pig's Hair Mohair Fur & Hackles Commonly Called Dubbing
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