I am working on a couple "hair"-brained schemes for making puppet toupees, wigs, hair-pieces, etc., etc., etc. I am unreasonably ignorant about the nature of feather boas. If I cut one into pieces, will they unravel and leave me with flying bits of feather? If so, how would I prevent such catastrophic results?

You can cut them into sections and yes you will loose a few feathers on the cut ends.  You can use frey check or a dab of hot glue on the end of the cord to prevent the cord from raveling.  I've never had them untwist.

Julie

" Julie beat me to it :


I'm a frayed so................ however you might try putting a dab of hot glue on the end you cut to keep it from unraveling. Boas are made by many feathers twisted within a contentious cotton thread and a knot tied on both ends. My experience cutting one has not been good......... I made a mess, next time I will have a vacuum close by.

Billy d.

When you do this you can also wrap tape around where you are going to cut and then cut through the tape.  Then add a bit of glue on top of the tape once you have it cut.

OK, tape and glue. This is good. Thanks for the advice!

What I'd like to know, is why a feather boa costs $4 if it is hanging loose, but only $1.99 if it is looped up?
I think that was at Michael's.
Seemed strange to me, since the lengths were exactly the same.

As a rule the difference in price is due to the amount and types of feathers that are used in the boa.  The cheaper versions are often called marabou and the more expensive sometimes called turkey feather boa's.  From what I have seen at Michael's in the past is that the ones that hang loose are the higher quality feathers.