Slave I
Active Hunter
Amen! lol: I'm beginning to wonder if we've been running the wrong direction.... What if they actually started with a brown girth, and then dyed it red? It would explain why it reacts so dramatically due to light and angle.
Actually, I think it's very possible the original one faded and they might have tried to fresh it up a little / reconditioning it. Or they might have made a new one I guess. But they could have redyed the brown as you say, and yes, I tend to believe that was what happened. You can only load so much color into cloth, so if some brown was still in there, but had faded, and they tried to add more on top, only some of it would have taken, alterating the overall look without a doubt.
As far as light and angle, the mohair fibers do not take dye evenly. At least on mine it doesn't. This further causes darkening and lighting variations. This helps when recreating it if you're dying your girth. I have not tried the latex stain method, but my guess would be that it would be an even, uniform red and that you would not be able to duplicate the way the mohair reacts exactly. Maybe someone who had gone the latex stain route can chime in as to whether the color is uniform or the uneven color remains?