Hi all, Anyone has experience with dying yonex white nylon birds with different colors? Reason is some of my fellow baddies bought white birds by mistake and no one wants to play with them because it is hard to see in the gyms we play at. So I was thinking of using food coloring...would it work? any suggestions? thanks in advance bchaiyow
1) Food coloring is water based, it will not stick to plastic bird. 2) Regular paint will add weight to the bird and change the birds fly. Suggestion: take it back and exchange them. if not, just give it to the kids to use.
Since it is nylon either go back and exchange or buy the bright green ones, isnt too expensive, only around 7 bucks USD. I think doing that will save you a lot of trouble of coloring them and possibly changing the weight.
Instead of coloring the skirt (the faux feathers), try painting the cork covering a bright orange (or other suitable color) instead. The orange color, if bright enough, might make the birds easier to track than yellow (or green-yellow).
Hi, K, guess from the consensus, I won't be able to dye it with food coloring. My friends bought tht birds long time ago...so I thought instead of just wasting them by leaving them in their bags forever, I'll try and dye them. I will try the marker on the "feather" and I'll try the marker on the cork as well... thanks guys bchaiyow
Yesterday, I colored the outiside of the cork on a couple of shuttles with a bright orange highlighter. I used these in a gym where it is diificult for many of use to track an all white shuttle. Those of us that used these modified shuttle were able to track them even more easily that the optic yellow yonex shuttles (yellow skirt with a white cork covering). The orange cork really stood out quite well. It seems that the colored cork gets your eyes to focus more on the cork rather that the skirt while tracking the shuttle in flight. With the oranage color, the shuttles were much easier to see when hit into the lights, even when the lights had a yellow-ish tinge to them. Soemtimes the optic yellow shuttles are not easy to follow if the lighting (or background) has too much yellow. The only problem is that the highlighter coloring faded quite a bit after 30-40 minutes of play. Will have to find a way to make the coloring a bit more permament -- perhaps I'll see if i can find some fluorescent orange permanent markers (like a Sharpie) or some sort of spray paint. Any other ideas? Try just coloring the cork -- it duznt really appear to be necessary to color the skirt (or feathers) at all if you do this.
from my experience, it is difficult to dye the feathers itself. the feathers are quite glossy and the cage part is covered with glue which doesn't play well with markers or dyes. SA's suggestion is very sound. the material that covers the cork looks very permeable and i think simple dye will be effective there. i also suggest those dye used by ppl who make tie-dye t-shirt. the key point is that you want something is penetrates the material and won't rub/fall off like the marker that SA used. do try it out and take some pictures for us to see.
Thanks all for the suggestions, will definitely try it tomorrow...had bad allergies all weekend, so did not feel like painting the cork...altho I still played over the weekend tho Will head over to the stationary store in the building where I work. yes, SA, you are right about the lights with the yellow birds..many times I was "blinded" by the lights and mishit the bird. thanks all bchaiyow
Thnx, kwun. The tie-dye idea could be a good bet. The cork covering on the Yonex 350 appears to be similar to the covering used on feather shuttles. Not sure how permeable it is, tho'. It did not take all that well to food coloring, even when using vinegar & hot water (as one would do when coloring Easter eggs).
