I was cleaning the workbench the other day and found a turkey feather that I set aside for fly tying. Years ago, I used to carve song birds competitively in regional shows. So I shook the rust off my skills and made a feather. I sliced up a piece of wood and cut it to shape and sanded it. Edge riffles were filed and sanded in the vane. I used a burning pen and started making the individual bards. I put about 6 hours to carefully set them in. It seems to take forever, but setting small goals each day, gets me through. There are probably over 1,000 lines in this feather. By increasing the pressure at the ends, it splits the barbs nicely. Here it is sealed and ready to paint. It was airbrushed lighter from left to right and then the bars painted in. Here the top half bars are painted in and will get several coats. The feather is just about completed in this pic. The bars took several coats of very thin paint washes. Thick paint fills the lines and loses detail. Overall the color was too light, but this is my first one, so much was learned. Looking at the actual feather I was working from, it is very challenging trying to duplicate Mother Nature. I have some very weathered pine barnboard that I fixed the feather to. It is almost too close in color, but the textures of the two pieces of wood look great with the right lighting.
That feather is fantastic. Two years ago, I got my tying vise and started to tie in the winter months. With that kind of artistic skills, I would love to see what you have tied up. It took me about 3 dozen ties to get a dozen acceptable cream midges to donate to my trout club last year.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. It is encouragement to work on other projects like this. Life sort of gets in the way of these creative things and I needed some time to get back into it.
