Feathers? Best (cheapest place) to buy?

[Jessica]

Hi. I am going to work on some costumes and need enough feathers for five dancers. I am looking online and feathers are mighty expensive. Does anybody know the best place to buy feathers? Looking for length, too...

Or perhaps there is something I could use instead of feathers? Any ideas?

I'm looking for something like what's in this photo:

 

[Icknaybob]

Feathers are very expensive. Most people here in Hollywood, CA buy theirs from:
"mother plucker". You can also try using craft foam. I know they come in sheets that are long. Maybe not as long as the ones in the picture there, but you can attach 2 sheets together and support it with a wire.

Good luck.

 

[Little Fett]

Wooboy! That's gunna be alot of feathers, dude. They mostly look like Reeves pheasant feathers, which are very hard to come by. Peacock feathers would be easier to get, but they look very different and might not be what you're going for.

You can get ringneck pheasant feathers, which are similar to reeves but shorter, at Michaels craft store.

Best of luck, dude.

 

[Shylaah]

For the colorful feathers like in your pic, you could use ye olde big white turkey feathers. Buy 'em in white and dye them or buy them already dyed if they have your color/s. Probably run you 25 cents to 1.00 each.


You are talking some major bucks for pheasant feathers that long.....

If these only have to look good from a distance, like on a stage, or on film, you might want to look into making something.

I have seen some "totally fake" pheasant feathers, howbeit, not this long, in the floral department at Hobby Lobby. Appeared to be made of some kind of thin stiffened fabric. There were no individual filaments/barbs like a real feather.

I think it would be doable to make using some thin, cheap muslin dyed to the background color of the feather
Stiffen it with some kind of glue solution sizing,
Make a pattern for the feather and mark it off on the stiffened fabric
Glue a thin wire down the back center of each
Paint on the dark slashy marks on the fronts.......

Since the feather shape is thick end/thin end, when you laid them out on the fabric one turned one way one the other, and say your feather is about 45" long, you could get quite a few out of a 1 1/3 yards of fabric and would be fairly inexpensive, though labor intensive

If you have a craft store near you that sells floral arrangement items, check them out to see if they have any fake feathers and examine their construction.

Shylaah

 

[EricHart]

Oriental Trading is a good place for cheap things like that, but it looks like their feathers aren't nearly as long as the ones in the picture.

I was going to suggest fabric as well. Shylaah beat me to the punch with a very good method to start experimenting with. You might also want to try some kind of plastic rod in lieu of wire for support, to give the feathers some stiffness combined with a bit of "bounce".

Another thought is to get some long fake grass and paint it.

 

[Jessica]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I really like the plastic rods in lieu of wire...and also the fake grass--and fabric...have to go to the craft store and see i can get. feathers are really really expensive and they're not an option at this point. the dancers just have to look good onstage--and must survive the dancing without moulting onstage.