If a very dark shade is wanted, a few drops of diluted logwood added to bath at the time you add the copperas will have the desired effect; or a few drops of violet will answer in its stead. Should you find your color too much on the drab, a few drops of safranine added to bath will have the desired effect. Should you find that your color is entirely too dark for your sample, rinse off the starch in cold water; pass feathers through a solution of a half teaspoonful of oxalic acid in a gallon of hot water for a few seconds; then rinse in hot water twice to remove the acid, after which prepare a fresh bath as per recipe, using more care, and keep in until desired result is obtained.
PLUM.
Feathers that are any color excepting dark green or black can be dyed a beautiful shade of plum. Wash and rinse your goods, and prepare your bath as follows: one pound of logwood to a gallon or more of water, and boil fifteen minutes or longer, then add to bath about a quarter pound of extract of archil, and enter your feathers, letting them remain in bath about five minutes, after which take them out and rinse in cold water. Prepare a bath of half an ounce of bichromate of potash in a gallon of boiling water, more or less, and see that it is thoroughly dissolved; pass feathers through about ten seconds; then take them out and rinse twice in clear cold water; then dilute a small handful of starch in a half gallon of luke warm water, and add to it about half an ounce of soda; pass feathers through for about half a minute and dry.
Should color be found too light for sample, rinse off starch in cold water, and repeat bichromate of potash bath; rinse, starch and dry. An old logwood bath that has been used for other colors will answer for plum, and save boiling up a fresh bath.
OLIVE.
If your feathers to be dyed are very dark colors, such as brown, navy blue, green, garnet, etc., draw off some of the color by passing through a solution of boiling water and half an ounce of soda, and rinse in boiling water twice. Prepare bath by diluting two ounces of turmeric in about one gallon of water. Enter feathers and let them remain in about two minutes,—a longer time will not hurt; after which take them out and rinse in cold water twice. Have a medium strong bath of logwood boiling meantime, and enter your feathers, letting them remain in about two minutes; then take them out and rinse in cold water. Prepare a bath of one gallon of boiling water and half an ounce of bichromate of potash, and after it is thoroughly dissolved, enter your feathers and let them remain in about one minute, longer if a very dark shade be required. Take out and rinse, after which your feathers will have assumed a dark, dull olive, looking not unlike a faded out black. Next prepare a bath of two ounces of turmeric with about one gallon of boiling water, and add thereto a small pinch of green aniline, just enough to give your bath the appearance of being a couple of shades more on the green than the sample to be matched. Enter your feathers and let them remain in about three minutes; first, however, bringing your bath to a boil, after which take feathers out and rinse, starch and dry.
If feathers be found darker than sample to be matched, a few drops of diluted oxalic acid in your starch bath will bring the shade down; and if found lighter than sample, rinse the starch off thoroughly in cold water, and dilute a quarter ounce of bichromate of potash in a gallon of boiling water, and pass your feathers through for a few seconds. If wanted a very dark shade, they should, after having the starch rinsed off, be returned to the logwood bath, then rinsed and give the bichromate of potash bath as above. If found a little too much on the green for sample, a weak bath of turmeric, similar to the first bath of the operation will have the desired effect. There are also some shades of olive where it will not be found necessary to use any green at all; that is when the shade approaches the brown on the olive.
LAVENDER.
Feathers for lavender must be white, or nearly so, if you desire a good clear shade. All light colors can be used by first bleaching with permanganate of potash, or if only dirty white feathers, wash and rinse them thoroughly. Prepare bath of luke warm water and a small handful of starch, rub feathers around between the hands to expand the fibres; then add to bath a few drops of diluted violet. Enter your feathers and let remain about one minute in bath, keeping them meanwhile in motion; take out your feathers and add to bath a drop of diluted safranine; re-enter and raise temperature of bath a few degrees by addition of hot water; let your feathers remain about half a minute in bath; if wanted darker, add a few drops of diluted violet, and if lighter, less; after which take out your feathers and dry them in the usual way, being careful to use clean starch for drying. To use starch that had previously been used to dry light colors that contained acid, would most likely result in spotting your color, as the application of acid to any portion of the delicate color would turn it a greenish blue. If your color be found too dark for sample, you can either wash in a solution of soap water, or else pass feathers through a bath of a teaspoonful of oxalic acid to a gallon of luke warm water, after which rinse off well and put through fresh bath as per recipe.