FLYMPH FORUM

DSCN4701 by flympher, on Flickr

Hook: Daiichi 1550, size 14
Thread: Pearsall's Gossamer silk, brown
Hackle: Starling

Nice work, is that a Starling covert feather? Cannot make out any tan tipping to the feather so I am guessing it is not a back feather and it just seems a little bulkier in the fibre than your run of the mill Starling body feather.

Dunno, Izaak ... on my monitor the "brown" Gossamer looks more like light orange. That aside, the construction is quite "Stewart-like" (with the obligatory nod to Mr. Baillie).

Mataura mayfly wrote:Nice work, is that a Starling covert feather? Cannot make out any tan tipping to the feather so I am guessing it is not a back feather and it just seems a little bulkier in the fibre than your run of the mill Starling body feather.

Last week I found and bought this exceptional starling skin. I wish I had a dozen just like it! This is a hackle from the starling's back. The hackle feather stems on this particular bird are longer, with more prime barbs, than I have seen before, and very richly colored.

tie2fish wrote:Dunno, Izaak ... on my monitor the "brown" Gossamer looks more like light orange. That aside, the construction is quite "Stewart-like" (with the obligatory nod to Mr. Baillie).

There is a bit of an orange cast to it, but I promise, it is brown Pearsall's!

There is a lot of variability in starling hackle. I have a few hand picked skins, that are exceptional. I have others, which rarely get used, because I do not like the shape of the feathers (too long and slender for my taste). I tend to like the skins with broader feathers, more spade shaped. I have had good luck with the dyed starling skins, but the natural skins seem to be more of a crap-shoot.

Lovely itsy-bitsy spider.

Nicely done. I bet the light apple green is playing a few tricks with the brown color. Looks quite orange to me also. The brown background is probably contributing as well.

Ain't photography fun. Just the sort of puzzle that I enjoy. All part of the fun.

I'm shooting against a white background in some shadow, too. It must be a combination of lighting, shadow, and reflected light from the apple.