Millinery Tip: Wiring feathers
To give a feather (or feathers) extra strength and support, milliners will often wire the shaft. (What's the shaft? Click here for a good visual overview of feather-part vocabulary.) The easiest way to do this is to use a feather board, a device that can be easily made at home with thick oak-tan leather, foamcore, or even corrugated cardboard.
Crafts Assistant Thomas Bernard demonstrates the use of a feather board
The plume is sandwiched between two rectangular boards and clamped in place. This holds the barbules (the fluffy bits) in place and keeps the plume from wiggling all over while you anchor the wire along the rachis (the section of the shaft that the barbules sprout off of).
If you look closely you will see the wire and the stitches holding it on. Wired feathers can be more easily curled and shaped than unwired feathers shaped only with steam. They are also more sturdy and, should the feather's shaft break, a wired plume will still maintain its shape despite that. If you do a lot of millinery involving feathers, you will want to make several feather boards of various lengths and widths to accommodate a range of feather sizes.
Edited to Add, June 23, 2007: Here are some sources for feathers, some of which coincidentally just came from a discussion on the USITT Costume Discussion E-list, an email resource for theatre costumers.
Zucker Feather Company - I've ordered from them and had adequate service and decent product.
The Feather Place - Ditto.
Eskay Novelty - Someone on the list raved about this place, but i've never tried them. The web catalogue is clumsy and the product jpgs are often poor quality, so you need to really know your feather types, i'd imagine.
American Plume - I've had wonderful service from this company, and they have a ton of preconstructed showgirl headdresses if you happen to be doing a show that needs them and have more money than time/skill on your staff.
Hollywood Fancy Feather - Never ordered from them myself, but someone on the list raved about them and when i worked freelance in LA, my employers often ordered from them.
Red Canyon Photographs
This portion of the post has utterly nothing to do with costuming, but since i spent last weekend hiking in Red Canyon and Mossy Cave (part of the Bryce Canyon National Park), i thought i'd share a little bit of why one might choose to spend one's summer in Utah...beyond just the opportunity to help create Tony-winning Shakespearean theatre, of course.
an example of a "hoodoo," a columnar rock formation particular to this area
highway 12 going through the red rock face
almost some hoodoos, but not quite--they need to erode more
view from inside the mouth of Mossy Cave
can you spot the hole in the rock?
here is a close-up of it!
waterfall at Mossy Cave
the tree's roots are just clinging on as the hillside erodes away around them!
Also, i wanted to offer a big welcome to the new folks who have found this blog since i have come out to Utah--things are busy and net access is sporadic, so i haven't had time to reply to each comment individually, but i am always so glad when people stumble upon this blog and enjoy its topics.
Crafts Assistant Thomas Bernard demonstrates the use of a feather board
The plume is sandwiched between two rectangular boards and clamped in place. This holds the barbules (the fluffy bits) in place and keeps the plume from wiggling all over while you anchor the wire along the rachis (the section of the shaft that the barbules sprout off of).
If you look closely you will see the wire and the stitches holding it on. Wired feathers can be more easily curled and shaped than unwired feathers shaped only with steam. They are also more sturdy and, should the feather's shaft break, a wired plume will still maintain its shape despite that. If you do a lot of millinery involving feathers, you will want to make several feather boards of various lengths and widths to accommodate a range of feather sizes.
Edited to Add, June 23, 2007: Here are some sources for feathers, some of which coincidentally just came from a discussion on the USITT Costume Discussion E-list, an email resource for theatre costumers.
Zucker Feather Company - I've ordered from them and had adequate service and decent product.
The Feather Place - Ditto.
Eskay Novelty - Someone on the list raved about this place, but i've never tried them. The web catalogue is clumsy and the product jpgs are often poor quality, so you need to really know your feather types, i'd imagine.
American Plume - I've had wonderful service from this company, and they have a ton of preconstructed showgirl headdresses if you happen to be doing a show that needs them and have more money than time/skill on your staff.
Hollywood Fancy Feather - Never ordered from them myself, but someone on the list raved about them and when i worked freelance in LA, my employers often ordered from them.
Red Canyon Photographs
This portion of the post has utterly nothing to do with costuming, but since i spent last weekend hiking in Red Canyon and Mossy Cave (part of the Bryce Canyon National Park), i thought i'd share a little bit of why one might choose to spend one's summer in Utah...beyond just the opportunity to help create Tony-winning Shakespearean theatre, of course.
an example of a "hoodoo," a columnar rock formation particular to this area
highway 12 going through the red rock face
almost some hoodoos, but not quite--they need to erode more
view from inside the mouth of Mossy Cave
can you spot the hole in the rock?
here is a close-up of it!
waterfall at Mossy Cave
the tree's roots are just clinging on as the hillside erodes away around them!
Also, i wanted to offer a big welcome to the new folks who have found this blog since i have come out to Utah--things are busy and net access is sporadic, so i haven't had time to reply to each comment individually, but i am always so glad when people stumble upon this blog and enjoy its topics.