Hi,

I'm working on a puppet with someone over the next 10 days for a class we're in. We're trying to build a bird and we aren't sure how to accomplish the plumage on the wings.

We don't have enough time to find tons of feathers, and we'd actually prefer to find a way to do it with a fabric/paint combination, or maybe with mache/paint, but we're not sure yet how to do it. Any ideas?

I would love to find some way that we can get a bit of movement within the wings, as well as some of that inky oily look you get on raven wings.

I'm pretty new to puppetry, but my partner has a lot more experience, so we can probably tackle a pretty complicated suggestion if you have one. We're making the head out of a two part mold using flexible slip.

Me again. So we've figured out a bunch of our puppet so far, including deciding to go with paper mache for the initial feather construction. We are probably going to let these dry out, then string them together and overlap then on each other. Hopefully this will give them each some individual movement, while also looking reasonably good.

We're not going muppet style, but we're also not going super realistic. This is a stage puppet, one to be used in dark and moody scenes.

Our plan is to paint these paper mache "feathers", but we haven't decided with what yet. Any ideas? As above, I'm looking for any thoughts about how to make them look good (which should be easy), while also having sort of a shimmer or hue that a real feather would have (which is the hard part.)

The mold for the mask is coming along really well.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff. Sounds like you have it planned out. I can't wait to see some pictures of the build. Maybe you can post a tutorial of the paper mache feathers.

Billy D.

Well before your second post, I was going to suggest useing fabric cut into a feather shape and then sewn at the base to a strip of fabric that is then sewn onto your wings.   The fabric of choice could have been what is called rip-stop or a silk that has the dark multi-color hue already in it. The one issue with that is that your fabric would fray over time so you would need to "seal" the ends.

Actually a bit of fraying would be good for the look but to stop it from going to far you could do one of two things.  You could sew a single line around each  feather about a 1/8 to 1/4 inch in.  The other option would be to use something like Fray Check on the edges again about 1/8 to 1/4 inch in. Both would be time consuming but would give a great look and effect.

Since you are going with papermache', then you can find an acrylic paint that has the "shimmer" you want.  Just visit your craft or art store and look for iridescent or glimmer colors.  If you can't find a black that works for you with the built in shimmer then you might have to base coat in black and then add some of the other iridescent colors on or even mixed in with the black. You can seal your painted feathers in a high gloss clear sealer to help give them a shine also. It might be that high gloss is to much for the look and in that case you could try a satin clear gloss sealer.  Satin sealers still have "shine" to them but are a bit more matt or dulled. If you think of the difference between say a piece of satin cloth and a the chorme on your car once it has been polished then you get an idea of what each sealer does.

Have you thought about making the bird out of an black umbrella....if you would like more ideas on this thought if you are not to much into the project....let me know and I will help you out.....you could get some amazing flapping actions and you can have it hight in the air....just a thought.

Daryl H