Process begins by washing each patch of hide with soap and warm water (removes oils and helps prepare the fur patches for the dye bath).
While I was washing the fur patches, I heated a stainless steel pot of water to a boil.
Washed fur patches.
I then sorted the patches by shade (darkest on left/lightest on right). I decided to start the dying process with the lightest colors of fur, then work up to the darker pieces, increasing the amount of dye with each batch.
First batch was done with 1/4 teaspoon of dye (in this case "Apricot Orange") color.
After dying the first batch, I rinced out the fur under cold running water, squeezing out any excess dye. Once the water ran clear, I squeezed out the excess water then headed off to the bathroom to find my wifes hair dryer (shhh..don't tell her).
Checking the color of the first patch.
The guard hair and tips of the under fur seemed to take on the color most. This first batch had the colors of a honey dun hackle (golden orange tips, fading into darker dun (gray) in the under fur. Lovely.
I continued the dying process, increasing the amount of dye between each batch. Rince repeat....
The patches were then all spread out on the dash of my car, to bake in the heat of the sun to finish drying. It's amazing how effective this is at drying out the leather patches. The are bone dry after an hour or two.
Finished shades of muskrat (varying amounts of dye and blending colors)
Darkest Shades (equal amounts of Apricot Orange/Tan/Cherry Red)
Spectrum of finished patches:
For comparison - The two lightest patches are undyed sections of the belly fur (really nice pale watery dun).
I had an old Hungarian Partidge skin, which I cut up and added to the dye bath.
Give it a try. It's a lot of fun.
