Feathers to Tickle Your Fancy (2)

Green and Guinea Hen feathers glued to a buckram backgroundIn this second article on using feathers, the photo on the left is of green and Guinea Hen feather tips that have been glued to a buckram background, which is a stiff material often used as the foundations for hats. I’ve had this feather cluster for a number of years, and when I look at the back of it, I can see that the glue is starting to turn brown, although it’s not showing through to the front to the feathers. I haven’t found the right piece to work this into yet, although I could see cutting the piece horizontally in half and using the two layers to suggest a row of short shrubs.

Detail of feather corsage used in an art quiltThis photo shows one of the few completed art quilts where I have used feather corsages. The small piece of black and brown feathers, about 3″ or 7.5 cm, I embellished with long, amber colored, angular beads to emphasize the golden color. While this piece also had the feathers glued to a buckram background, some of them shifted out of place as I was adding the beads, so I had to tack some of the individual feather barbs in place with small stitches to unruffle the feathers and to get them to lie flat. The name of the piece is “Feathers and Stars, Stars and Feathers“, which I wrote about the end of December, 2011. I already had the metal, costume jewelry feather pin, as you can see in this photo, so I felt I needed some real feathers in the piece.

Feather barbs glued between layers of buckram meshWith the British Royal Wedding in the Spring of 2011, more and more feathers appeared in the craft sections of many stores, as so many women’s hats at the wedding had feathers as part of the decorative trim. The ones in this photo are known as feather barbs, where the main part of the feather has been stripped away and beads threaded onto the rachis or center shaft. The tips were then glued between two layers of black buckram which can be folded to make the feather display thicker, or leave it spread out as it appears in the photo. I’ve yet to use this type of feather arrangement in anything but headpieces for myself, but I do have one attached to my pinning board in case the right art quilt comes along.

Feathers attached through grommets onto a strip of leatherThese feathers in the photo on the left have a bead cap attached on the calamus or the very end of the feather and are threaded with beads onto a thin strip of leather. Those leather strips are then worked through grommets that are on a wider strip of leather and are then sold by the yard. I’ve cut two grommets worth of the leather foundation into short sections, folded them back on themselves, and made them into wonderful earrings. They brush my shoulders when I move and are great, good fun to wear. I’ve found that when they get too bent from being in the plastic bag in which they’re stored, all I have to do is mist them with a little water, straighten them with my hands, and let them dry back into shape. After all, birds get wet all of the time.

Iron-on feather appliques for art quiltsHere’s yet another way to get the look of feathers into your wardrobe and art quilts. These eight iron-on appliques are about 1.5″ or 4 cm long. While I wouldn’t trust the glue on the back to hold over time, they can be easily stitched on to a surface. They are rather small, however, so I haven’t found the right piece to work them onto yet, but then what’s a studio stash for if not to have treasures in the waiting.

In Fire Mountain Gems’ extensive “encyclobeadia” of techniques, there’s a great article on adding feathers to your work. While a lot of the info is about how to use them in jewelry, many of the details on attachment techniques are useful for including them on an art quilt, too.

I have had one big feather disaster. I had an 8″ (20.25 cm) round fan of peacock feather tips glued on both sides of a cardboard backing that I had displayed on the wall. It was attacked by flour moths before I noticed the small pile of “sawdust” on the floor and could save the fan. The larvae had chewed through most of the central shafts of the feathers and there was nothing to do but throw the whole thing out. Since then, I’ve watched the one quilt, shown above, in which I’ve used feathers, and it seems to be fine, and also the blue feathered fan that I wrote about in the previous article, as it lives most of the time pinned to a wall, too. I do have a number of pheromone traps throughout the house, especially in my studio, as there is a multitude of materials in there that the moth larvae like to chomp on besides feathers. I guess I’m not the only creature who thinks that feathers are cool, too.

Have you used feathers in your art work? Why not tell us how and any techniques that you found useful.

 Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this piece. Please take a minute, fill out the form by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

One comment

  1. I’ve never been a big fan of feathers, but you make them seem very useable! You are making me want to try all kinds of new things!

Leave a Reply