One of my projects this winter will be dig deeper into materials, and first out is a project to dye skins and material to see how that is done and to get more familiar with creating things from scratch. First out is rabbit skins: I got some skins the other day that I will start using for my tying. I ordered a natural brown to create the Kutling, a white to experiment with dying and a black for general zonker strips.
I tested out some different ways of cutting zonkers, but ended up with a method of creating your own zonker cutter on youtube. This has proven to work and I get consistent strips to work with. The natural brown rabbit I got had some long hairs and some good spiky tips that is perfect for the Kutling.
Here is a version where I used silver fox for the tail (instead of spey hackle) and a white salt-water dubbing from A. Jensen
Another version, but this time with a orange salt-water dubbing from A-Jensen
I have tied up a set of these and will test them out later on, but I’m quite happy with the material so far and the next thing to do is to order color to start dying that white skin. I also plan to look into bleaching and maybe buing a whole Roe skin to color and use for tying. But first things first: more rabbit!