Fellow Modelers,

Please help. I have secured some silver birch catlin seeds, which is nearly impossible to do in the U.S. I need help in getting their natural brown color changed to leaf green before they are attached to the tree. I tried RIT dye and ended up with stuck together clumps.
I wrote the feature "Supertree or Super Nuts?" and want to fill out the tree with more leaves. I made the tree, painted it, added the brown leaves, air-brushed them and have to wiggle in by hand and tiny brush to repaint the tree where the overspray hit it. With more leaves, the repaint will become near impossible.
These seeds are very light and the least "blow" sends them flying, just like Nature intended. I thought of sandwiching them between two pieces of screen and dunking them in groups, but haven't tried it, yet.
Your help is appreciated. The tree has become somewhat of an obsession with me. Hudson and Allen have figured it out and I've bought several bags of their leaves, but I need so much for a 12" tall tree. Any ideas or previous success? Thanks in advance. Visit my feature and comment, too. That's how I get better.

Sealhead

I faced the same problems when using regular birch trees seeds, and unfortunately didnt come up with a good method to color them. One thing i thought of but never tried.. using dye on the catkin before seperating all the seed.. If you still have some full catkins try dipping it in a strong dye.. then let dry thoroughly. After dry break it all apart and hopefully the seeds have picked up the color.
If you have tried this idea without success let me know so I can cross it off my list.. I think your screen idea may be worth trying.. if a screen doesnt work maybe a nylon veil material is an option.. good luck

As I read through I was thinking of some type of screen deal. How about an old pair of panyhose. Stretch it over a bend hanger and put the seeds in the middle or if the hanger is too thick, make two and sandwich the seeds between the two layers.

Or - hand paint the leaves after they're on the tree

Just an off the wall thought here: Could you dye them all at once with some Rit (spelling?) cloth dye. I have done this with cheese cloth to make cammo nets.
Again, I am not really sure exactly what the seeds look like so this is just a suggestion.

Shaun

Thanks all so far,

Rit dye clumped them. Handpainting several thousand leaves gives me nightmares. Don't have any pods left as I broke them all up. Will get more this Fall. Worth trying the pod dip idea.
Keep 'em coming. I'm desparate.

Sealhead

At several thousand leaves it would have to be a Supertree. I noticed you said it would be too much of a herculean effort to paint once they're stuck on the branches but how about spraying.

Yes you'll get some spray drift onto your branches but between branches and leaves I'm sure it would be easy to handpaint back the branches which wouldn't be as numerous. You could minimize the spray drift by covering as much of the branches by DRAPING over but not WRAPPING it with plastic wrap, the stuff they use for wrapping food and vegetables. Since the wrap is pretty pliable it can be moulded around branches if you cut narrow strips.

Sorry its the best I could come out with though I can sympathize with your predicament. Dyeing even with a screen would mean having clumps at worst and at best some leaves losing their paint due to being stuck to the screen. If I'm not wrong those seeds are slightly hydrophobic in that they don't absorb water much as they have a thin waxy coat.

Good luck and let us know of your "experiments".

... and if you forget the seeds and use dried leaves instead? airbrush them, when dried and then crumble it.