anyone had any success with feathers?

[lyn]

I've had some dyed feathers for ages - scrummy turquoise and bottle green.
They would look great in felt, I thought.

So I laid out some white merino and placed 3 feathers on it - they all had a natural curl that looked good.
Then I put the merest hint of fibres on top to trap.

Careful wetting down and very, very gentle rubbing and things were looking good.
The 'hairs' on the feathers separated then clumped together in small groups like curly fingers.

I was starting to get excited at this point - the turquoise dye had leaked from the feathers to halo them - oh, it was pretty.

But I was unable to get the feathers to felt in - they ended up all stringy and now they're in the bin.

I'm wondering if the treatment that the feathers had during processing affected my attempt or was I trying to do something that's not possible?

Has anyone had any luck with feathers and wet felt?

[koffipot]

Oh dear Lyn,
I haven't tried felting with feathers, but I can imagine them going stringy, in fact it makes me wonder how they manage to dye them without damage.
I'm not going there until you've worked out the technique!

[MTRuth]

Haven't tried the feathers but wonder since they are all attached together, how shrinkage would affect them. Since they are so much heavier than the wool, I would think they would need more wool covering them to hold them in. I do think I saw something online where someone had felted feathers in but I don't remember where. I did a quick online search and didn't find anything though. Perhaps try more wool on top?

[Shepherdess]

teh only thing I could find was how to turn a peacock feather into a felting needle. i wonder about the shrinkage too. it might give you soem interesting testure but no longer look like a feather. Maybe try more wool over it may be needle it in a bit. people do felt strange things in like doll parts, doilies

[Karen]

Oh i'm sure Zed felted a feather in some time ago ??

[lyn]

I think the problem is the stalk.

It's like fingernail material and it doesn't shrink so it's going to buckle up as the wool shrinks and therefore pull the 'feather hairs' with it.

Because the 'feather hairs' are wet and delicate they draw towards the stalk and the whole feather ends up stringy.

[zed]

Yeah, I seem to remember trying a feather, it was either one from a pillow or a softish one off a pigeon. I can't find any photos on flickr, but seem to remember having the same results as when I tried a pampas grass
feltingandfiberstudio.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/cortaderia.jpg?w=370&h=

The stalk was the problem, poked through and hairs zig-zagged and clumped. I was going to try it between layers.
I had a load of (fake?) soft wispy feathers, that probably would have worked, but I gave all my feathers away recently.

[lyn]

Trying again with the feather was in my diary for today, but after a bit of thought, I've decided it isn't worth pursuing.
I can see myself getting very frustrated.

Time to move on.