How to dye a hide?

I have several tanned white hides that I would love to turn purple or pink for my daughter but I have no idea how to go about it.

Any ideas?

Have they been smoked? If so you just get clothes dye from Walmart. If they haven't been smoked you do the same thing but you will have to rework them until dry so they will be soft again.

Ritz dye is the cloths dye walmart carries. I do use it on feet so it should work on a hide.

So do I soak the hide in the dye or do I use a sponge and dab it onto the fur?

I "think" you would have to soak it. It takes a bit for the dye to set when I do feet and you should rinse well after so that you get excess dye off the fur. Else it's probably going to bleed if it ever gets a bit of moisture on it. Maybe try a small piece of fur and see how it goes? You going to need to do the acid type dye and add vinegar to the mix.

As Links56 said you will probably have to rework the hides as they dry.

I think I will try fryer hides in the dryer and see how they look. Having read about how white hides dont seem to sell very well, well, perhaps vivid purple might? :lol:

Please post pictures when you get it done and let us know how they turn out. I was going to try this with some of my white hides as well.

__________ Wed Jan 27, 2016 7:45 am __________

Add the dye to the pickle.

It didn't turn out great but I know where I messed up. Split the hide don't leave it cased. Use a bigger container than a quart jar. Use more dye. I decided to try this kinda spur of the moment so just took some of the pickle and put it in a jar with some dye and scrunched the hide in. There wasn't enough space/dye in the jar for the dye to penetrate the hide. You can see where it took around the edges and in the skin but not the fur in the middle. I was also trying the alum and salt method and I didn't check the PH. I'm thinking now that It may not have been low enough to set the dye. I plan on trying again.

I think adding the dye to a true pickle and using a seperate solution for the tan is probably the way to go. Since the PH on most tanning solutions is still low, you may could add the dye to the tan but I'd be leary of doing that as you don't know how it will affect the tanning solution. This way the hide would already be dyed before breaking and you won't have to do that step twice.

I'm no expert at tanning this being the 3rd batch of hides I've done. I still have alot to learn, especially as fleshing and breaking.


__________ Sun Oct 09, 2016 9:30 am __________

I decided to try to dye hides again. I tried right after the pickle stage and then tried again (with the same hides) after tanning but before drying and breaking. It did not get as dark as I would like. It would probably work better if I had a true acid dye. I just used some Ritz dye I had here at the house. I had to leave the hides for several hours to get this dark.

I will probably try again with an acid dye and do it after tanning but before drying and breaking.

How cool would it be to have a rabbit that color?!?! :lol:

Very pretty! Can't wait to see what others come up with if they experiment as well! Tie-dye anyone??? :bandana: