Dubbing!

For the past couple of years I started playing around with manufacturing dubbing. I started off with some yarn and a coffee grinder. I eventually gravitated more towards animal fur. I have four pet American Rabbits that I collected sheddings from. Right off of the rabbit, the fur is hard to use as the guard hairs make a very coarse dubbing. I played around with separation methods and found a really good one involving nitrogen (or compressed air) and a large plastic bag. Unfortunately separation loses about 1/4 to 3/8 of the total Volume of fur. Quite a few coloring methods were tried and I landed on a good process, which involves a couple of extra steps. The process of making a dyed animal Fur dubbing goes-Harvest, separate, wash, dry, dye, dry, wash, dry, trim, and blend. It’s something that turns into multiple days and sometimes involves throwing away a batch. It opens up a whole new opportunity of creativity and the chance to offer something uniquely mine. This week I’m sending some off to one of my favorite tyers. He’s linked with Daiichi and Veevus, and creates some of the most picturesque flies I’ve ever seen. He will offer the honest feedback that I need before putting them on the market. My opinion on the dubbing is absolutely biased, so the opinion of a true professional is the only way to know what I’m going to have to offer. I pretty much wrote this post so anyone that would make a future purchase will see why the price is more than others. My brain is always going, trying to create something that can benefit others. I’m honestly excited at the thought of selling dubbing I harvested, colored, and blended.