Prepare your feathers by washing and rinsing thoroughly, or if old
light colors, bleach with permanganate of potash, being sure to rinse
out in hot water to remove acid from feathers, before putting in bath.
Dilute a small quantity of starch in a gallon of boiling water, and
enter your feathers, rubbing them around in bath between the hands to
expands the flues and admit the color evenly on feathers. After which
add to bath a small pinch of copperas, about the size of a bean, and
about a teaspoonful of turmeric, and enter your feathers, letting
them remain in bath about one minute; take them out, and add about a
teaspoonful of logwood liquor; re-enter your feathers, and let them
remain in bath about one minute, first increasing the temperature
by adding hot water; after which remove feathers from bath, and add
thereto a few drops of diluted Bismarck brown. To bring the ecru tint
desired, a few seconds before taking feathers from bath to dry, add a
couple of drops of diluted violet, squeeze out and dry.
If a very dark shade of beige is wanted use a greater amount of logwood
and Bismarck brown, and if lighter shade is desired, less color should
be used. Should your color be found altogether too dark for sample,
dilute about half a teaspoonful of oxalic acid in a gallon of hot
water, more or less. Pass your feathers through for a few seconds, and
rinse off twice in luke warm water and once in boiling water. Then mix
a fresh bath of luke warm water and starch, and add thereto a small
proportion of turmeric and diluted Bismarck brown, and copperas about
the size of a pea. Enter your feathers, and, using care, bring to the
desired shade.
[Illustration: NAVY BLUE--page 31.]
[Illustration: MAGENTA--page 69.]
[Illustration: PEA GREEN--page 80.]
[Illustration: BRONZE--page 74.]