Portabella Merlot & Dun Sekasa Kebari

[letumgo]

Portabella Merlot & Dun Kebari (Tenkara Style)
Hook - Mustad R50 / Size 12
Thread - Waxed Pearsall's Gossamer (Ash/No 10)
Abdomen - 50/50 Blended Silk/Wool Yarn (Portabella) - Thanks Lance
Thorax - UNI-Yarn (Wine)
Hackle - Hungarian Partridge (Dyed Dun) - Thank Carl

I received some new material last week, from Lance and Carl and just had to play. Thanks guys. Very much appreciated. I figured the best way to show my gratitude, is to share the flies I create with these materials.

Lance - The card you sent had the words "Silk & Ivory - Switzerland - 50/50 Silk & Merino Wool". Is "Silk & Ivory" the maker? Where did you find this stuff? The colors are beautiful (very warm an rich). The Portabella color immediately caught my eye. Have you tyed with this stuff yet? It work very nicely. I untwisted the yarn and split it into three individual ply. The fly above is tyed with a single ply of yarn. I wanted to see how smoothly I could wrap the backend, using a single ply. It worked well, but I probably should have twisted the strand to increase the strength. It's fun to experiment. All part of learning how a new material behaves.

Carl - The dun dyed partridge is gorgeous stuff. You were not kidding about the difficulty of photographing this hackle. I tried many different colored backgrounds (paint color swatches), and this is best I could do with the available lighting (fluorescent). Unfortunately the background color does not properly catch the color of the abdomen (kind of a trade off). Anyway, this hackle color is going to be very useful for fishing flies. They may be difficult to photograph, but that is a minor consideration for fishing flies. Nice dye job, by the way. Care to share how you did this (what type of dye did you use, what tricks did you use & any advice you can offer).

[Roadkill]

Great looking fly, did you create it out of the international flymph cookbook?

[letumgo]

*chuckle* It took me a second to realize the joke, then I cracked up laughing. Funny!

[Old Hat]

Nice Tenkara pattern Ray.

That yarn turned out very nice and sure has a great sheen to it.

You did a much better job at photographing the hackle than I did. I will have play with more background colors to see what I came up with.

I used RIT Dye. Dark Brown, Royal Blue and Black in an estimated 50/40/10 mix. With a couple drops of dish soap and vinegar. Soaked for 1 minute at about 160 degrees.

[William Anderson]

Ray, a very nice use of the materials. Great to see another kebari on the site. And a great one at that.

Carl, I'm also waiting for the dying details, if you're willing to share. Thanks .

w

[letumgo]

Thanks for the info Carl. I would have never guessed that there was brown in the mixture. Very interesting.

[Old Hat]

If you go to the RIT website they will give you an idea of mixture for the color you want. Feathers are a little different than fabric but it is a good place to start.

[Mataura mayfly]

Way cool looking tie Ray.
Where is your tie off point?
The hackle comes through as a light "baby blue" where it should be white normally. Of course seeing it in hand will be different, but you do get a feel for the colour change.
Lance's wool/silk blend sure looks interesting as a body material. What happens to it when it becomes soaked?

[letumgo]

Interesting question. I wetted the fly and found that the abdomen darkened a few shades (now very much the color of the top of a cooked portabella mushroom - an earthy gray/brown color).

The tye off point is at the front of the fly. I still haven't gotten used to tying off at the back, as is often done on tenkara flies.

[Mataura mayfly]

Interesting question. I wetted the fly and found that the abdomen darkened a few shades (now very much the color of the top of a cooked portabella mushroom - an earthy gray/brown color).

The tye off point is at the front of the fly. I still haven't gotten used to tying off at the back, as is often done on tenkara flies.

Neither can I! Bit like building a reverse fly with the hackle at the bend and tail at the eye....... brain just says "NO".
So the silk darkens to cooked mushroom, what happens to the wool in the blend? Do the "fluffy" fibres still remain the same with a translucent value?