This might be a topic somewhere already. But my next project is going to be a bird. Anyone have any tips for feathering her? I was going to dye the foam the same color as the feathers and stick the feathers into the foam and see if I can glue them from the inside. This is probably really time consuming, but I want the feathers to look like they are growing not just slapped on. Suggestions? Anyone already figure this one out?

There are many methods to feathering a bird depending on the type of bird you are building. You can use a combination of fur,feathers,felt,fabric,and craft foam to get the desired look you want. Check out the links below to get some idea of the way other folks have built birds.

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,5119.0.html

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,3909.0.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh0oG-ppmTM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7OAdbSNizA&feature=fvwrel

http://anguspuppets.com/puppetgallery.html

http://www.pavlovspuppets.com/bird_blue.htm

Julie makes some cool looking birds.

http://www.outoftheboxpuppets.com/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=14

With my crane (he is quite small, of course) I made the plummage with white fake furr which I trimmed. It also helps to cover the glued on ends of the black marabou feathers.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?Y0ln88LTYRQ" target="youtube">YouTube Video</a>

Rikka, I think the is the first time I've seen your work.  The crane is just lovely.

Yalaurie,  please let me know if I can help.

Julie

Thank you very much, coming from an artist like yourself this is an HUGE compliment. I had my crane and my cats posted in "puppetry on the internet" (I think the cats are better), but of course there is so much going on on this side, it slips attention. I wasn't on for more then 12 hours and I am starting to loose track already. Here are the cats again, hope you like them, too.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?pyiGWb8-1TI" target="youtube">YouTube Video</a>

great! thanks for all the tips. I'll play around with it and see how it turns out.

I've recently turned Vegan in my diet and lifestyle and no longer use animal products.  Now, it's a choice....I'm not suggesting it for anyone else.  I am not trying to convince anyone else to be Vegan.  But having turned Vegan, I have had to change the way that I build puppets, too.  Maybe you don't have to use real feathers.  Perhaps a fuzzy fabric may give the appearance of feathers.  I should think it would be easier to use that than real feathers...I don't know.  Come to think of it, I've never built a bird puppet....hmmmmmm.  I'm interested to see your bird when you finish it.  Please do a show and tell for us.

Now I will be thinking of this all day.....how to feather a bird. lol

xoxo,
N

So if your a vegan you can't use feathers? How about wool clothing?  I guess I figured it meant you could not use products that harmed an animal and since these are harvested so to speak they wouldn't count so to speak.  

Then on the other hand I guess since they are animals on a farm raised for the reason of retrieving the wool or feathers I can kind of see that could be seen as a negative for a Vegan.

Hmmm... wow you are right being a Vegan would could really make you re-think a lot of things.