I've been making floats just recently, I'm very new to it all. I started because of the lack of stick floats available locally.
I've had similar results, although not quite as professional, using fly tying silk thread. To get the high gloss finish where the individual threads disappear and appear as a single band of colour then it's multiple coats of varnish that are required, the base of threads needs to be very tight or you'll get gaps. For some reason I get better results using dark threads rather than light, I have no idea why.