Dyeing goat skin?

Factual Questions
1

If I’m going to shoot a goat out of a PVC pipe, I might as well do it in style.

I’d like to then celebrate with some music, but a couple of my djembes need new heads. The heads are goat skins of varying thickness (it depends on what kind of sound I want). I’d like to try my hand at tie-dying the skins (or something similar) before I re-head the drums.

The dyes would have to be waterproof to some extent. Once the dyeing is done I’ll eventually be putting them in a pan of water to make them pliable enough to stretch over the shell.

They also have to be permanent enough to stand up to long-term playing. Djembes are hand-instruments, so there’ll be substantial physical contact and as well as lots of flexing as they’re played. It wouldn’t do to have dyes come off on my hands or sharply fade where the drums get played.

The colours would also have to stand up to conditioning. Before playing I usually put a dollop of shea butter on my hands and it gets worked into the skin as I play. The shea butter isn’t a cosmetic per se or in a lotion—it’s just pure shea butter.

Obviously the dye can’t weaken the skin, if that’s an issue.

Something that can be done or should I stick with fancy wraps and ropes?

2

Most of the decorated djembe heads I see are henna. You mix ground henna leaves with lemon juice or some other acidic liquid and apply the paste with a cone (think: small pastry bag) or stick or brushes. Then you walk around the fire all night, heating the head as much as you can without overtightening it. In the morning, you knock off the paste and the pattern will be fairly bright orange, which will fade to brownish orange over the next 24-48 hours as it mixes with the oxygen in the air. This is the best source for quality henna, in my experience: http://www.mehandi.com/

You can skip the heating step, but the color won’t be so deep in the head and it will wear more quickly.

If you don’t want to do henna, you can do a leather dye, but they’re kind of a pain in the ass and require you to work the leather as it dries to keep it supple. Basic process there is use a deglazer if there’s any finish to the leather, then to spray the leather with a spray bottle of water to dampen, and then work in a dye with a brush or cloth. The dye never, ever seems to dry fully, and will rub off on hands and clothes, though.

While I know they’re out there, I really cannot fathom how one would actually tie dye a goat skin (they’re just not that flexible, and they don’t absorb liquid dye like fabric does), although I’m sure a skilled artist could paint a reasonable visual facsimile of a tie dye pattern on it. I suspect that’s what the “tie dyed” drum heads you see are - painted on patterns that *look *tie dyed. Dharma Trading Co. is my go-to for textile and leather dyes.

Shea butter will not harm henna; I’m not sure what it will do to leather dye.

No matter what process you use, eventually the color will wear more at your tone and slap zones and slower at the bass. You can theoretically get this to happen more evenly if you move your straps periodically to slap a different part of the head, but you know as well as I do that drums have a side they want “up”, even though they look round, so in actual practice, you’re going to get more wear on one edge than the others. :smiley:

3

Hadn’t thought of henna—sounds interesting. These are all rope-tuned; how much heat is required? Heading a drum means soaking the head in water before putting it on—if I hennaed the head before I soaked it, would most of the colour rinse away?
As for dyes, I was thinking I’d soak it to make it pliable, shake/wring out the excess water, scrunch and band it, then add dyes while it was still wet and letting it dry. Then once the dyes were set, re-soaking it (hence the question about solubility) wrapping it in the rings and tightening it as normal.

But not if there’s a chance that a dye wouldn’t stay relatively put once I started playing. I don’t mind wear patterns (kind of nice, actually), but dye on my hands wouldn’t be worth it.

4

Once the henna has been sitting on there for ~24 hours and you’ve flaked it off (you’re best off flaking it off with a blunt scraper or the edge of a credit card you don’t use anymore, as once the dried paste become wet again, it can reactivate and leave smeary marks if you try to rinse it off), the stain left behind is impervious to rain and water.

The heating is just to soften the skin a little bit and open it up to take the henna in deeper. I henna already headed drums, and I just carry it around the fire with me for an evening of meditation and groovy vibes. When I get tired, I go sit down and set the drum next to me or in my lap with the head pointing at the fire. (Can’t you just feel the love and grooviness flowing into that drum? :smiley: )

If you’re not going to be at a fire, leaving the henna paste on in the sunlight on a warm day should do the trick nicely.

I honestly think it’s easier to henna *after *the head is on - you know for sure where center is, and it’s nice and taut and smooth to work your paste on. You certainly could henna the skin first and then flake off the dried paste and then soak it and put the head on your drum, but you’ll have to pin it out on a board or something to hold it smooth and still for paste application anyhow.

The process is exactly like that of hennaing human skin, and there’s lots of great information and tutorials for body art/mehandi at that first link I posted.

She’s also got a great free ebook on Rangoli, which are usually floor art, but are beautiful patterns which you can blow up/shrink down, print and trace onto transfer paper, transfer to the drumhead and then henna on the lines! Sooooo easy. (Don’t tell anyone I’m a tracer, okay? :wink: )

I’m curious about the dyes, too. I’d suggest maybe trying with some scraps and see how it goes (and let me know!) I’ve only done leather dying for clothing pieces, and yeah, I ended up with colorful legs when it rained, and smudges of color where the skirt touched my white underskirt even when it didn’t rain. :smack: I’m guessing the pros must use mordants I haven’t found, or a vat dye technique with different dyes or something…I know my store bought colored leather doesn’t do that.

5

Almost any decent leather dyes are going to work for this. My SCA armor is dyed and various oils have not created any loss or smearing of color that I have noticed. Rain and sweat have also not created any noticeable bleeding of color.

granted it is not goat leather, but the structure is similar to light leather and should not make any appreciable difference. IME the stuff stains cows as well as people quite effectively.

6

I know this is an old thread, but since it’s come up on my search, I hope someone else can benefit from this: I tie dyed a goatskin with blueberries! And…it looks pretty cool.

http://tinypic.com/r/sx2lao/9