The thought of dyeing my own Kendama only recently came into mind. I dye alot of products in my place of work, and we work alot with rit dye for dyeing wheels and also skates when we need them so i thought i would dabble in doing my own ken. I know Sweets do dyed kendama's but this way i could just buy plain ones and dye them to the colour i like as i have easy access to rit dye.
Here are my results:
What is needed:
1 Satchet of rit dye
1 Container big enough to fit the kendama
1 kettle (or boil water using a saucepan)
1 Plain Ken.
Step 1: While boiling the kettle I setup the container in the sink and added about a 1/3 of the sachet. Remember, it is better to put less in than more as you can always leave the product in for longer, or add more later if needed. We usually use 1 packet in a giant saucepan and that's enough to do 100's of wheels over time.
Step 2: Add boiling water into container as to fully submerge the ken. As you can see, with any wood, it will float, you can put something on top to weigh it down but i just rotated it every minute (just make sure you use gloves as i now have orange fingers, i should have known better). Leave in until desired colour is reached. Mine literally took 4 minutes max.
Step 4: Wash all remaining dye off ken under cold water, This to stop it taking on anymore colour and also to cool it down to dry quicker. Id advise leaving it to dry for at least 24 hours before use just so the dye settles properly and doesn't rub off on your hands.
As you can see from the end result it came out a dark orange, i could have put less dye in to get a much brighter colour. Thinking about it you could also make the dye and paint it on with a paintbrush, i went with the soak method to make sure it penetrated the wood quite deeply.
You can also use the dye while it's still hot to dye up some strings too!
We sell rit dye on our ebay store and website but it is cheaper off our ebay store found
HERE Hope this helps anyone who fancies adding a bit of colour to their kens.
