: It depends on your end goal...

: The advantage of using a dye on the fabric is that when you coat it with
: clear coating the skin remains translucent like oiled rawhide. A lot of
: people who do it this way are using a coating like the Spirit Line 2-part
: goop, which can't be tinted.

: Before you give up on dye, go to the Jacquard web site and either post on
: their user's forum or contact their tech representatives. They are the
: premiere dye manufacturer, at least among the fiber artists I know, and
: they will be able to give you the definitive answer on dyeing polyester.
: I'm sure they make a dye for it. After all-polyester comes in lots of
: colors. (Historically, some of them are quite hideous!)

: The second is to consider what coating you're going to use and how you want
: the skin to look. If you want to end up with an opaque finish you have a
: few more options. If you're going to go with a consumer-grade polyurethane
: like Zar, the solution that most people use is to tint the finish using
: raw powdered pigments. All paint consists of is a pigment in a medium, so
: in this case the powder is the pigment, and the poly is the medium. You
: can get the pigments from an art supply store like Dick Blick, or from Lee
: Valley Tools. This will give you an opaque finish. If you want to use a
: poly, this is the safest and most stable option.

: If you want to tint your own color for a paint, you can also go to a high-end
: paint store and buy liquid Universal Tinting Colors (UTCs) that will mix
: with pretty much any paint or polyurethane. When you go to a home center
: or someplace and they squirt the stuff into the paint can to make the
: color you want, that's what's getting squirted.

: Many people use brush-on Rustoleum, which is pretty much an oil-based paint.
: It was originally developed as a marine application to prevent rust on
: commercial fishing boats, and they do also make a marine coating, but
: their tech reps don't recommend using any of their products on fabric like
: a skin boat.

: If you want to go with a marine-specific paint, most companies don't
: recommend any of their products. However, Epifanes' tech reps recommend
: their monourethane topside paint, and those are o.k. to tint with the
: UTCs, so you can get a good range of colors there.

: If you decide to go with a coating like Coelan marine coating you have a
: couple of options. If you decide to use it clear, you can dye the skin
: underneath and end up with a translucent skin. If you want to go with an
: opaque color they have tubes of color you put into the clear to make an
: opaque paint. You can't add UTCs or anything else to it or it won't work.
: I've experimented a little with using a touch of the color to see if it
: will add color without making it opaque, and it does a decent job, but
: I've only done it on samples and only with two coats, and the manufacturer
: recommends five. (A lot of people who use it have said they only use 2-3
: coats, though.) The tech reps actually recommended I try this, and it
: works pretty well.

: The LAST thing I'd try is oil stain intended for wood, even gel stain. It's
: gritty pigment that's intended to catch in the pores of the wood, and if
: it sticks in the weave of the fabric you won't get good adhesion to the
: fabric when you put on your poly. You're right, an oil-based poly will
: stick to it, but you need it to stick to the fabric, not the stain.

: Whenever you use a product for a use it wasn't intended you risk a
: catastrophic failure, and wood stain is a failure in the making. Even when
: using a dye on nylon, there are cases where the Spirit-Line will
: delaminate because of interference from the dye. I don't mean to sound
: like a commercial, but Coelan Marine Coating is the only coating I'm aware
: of that is intended for use on fabric, like inflatable boats.

: So. Pick your poison. Just not wood stain!

: m

Mike,

Thanks for the info. Do you know if someone has posted pictures of the opaque finish you've talked about? I think maybe I could approximate the translucent finish by adding pigment to the first coat of finish, and then build up layers of clear finish on top of that.

-Brent