Feathers.....

Of all the techniques I like to use, decoupage would have to be the one I like the most.  It takes weeks to finish and everything about it is hard on the hands, but I like being able to use something as temporary as paper and make something much more long-lasting.  It also appeals to the hoarder in me, and its hard to use that special image.....that last scrap of precious something.....until its gone, and then I just have to hope I like the way I used it.

This is one of the eggs I finished (there are quite a few awaiting yet another coat of varnish) and its an example of using feathers as decoration.  I think I still have the callouses from cutting these ones out.

The base egg shape is a cardboard one, painted gold and overlaid with paper feathers.  The varnish is oil-based so that it gets deeper with age, and makes the gold glow.  Here's another side of the same egg, with the eye of a peacock feather as the central image.

Its hard to display eggs, and I don't like them sitting up like trophies, so it usually lives in a bowl with a collection of others, not sitting on the mantelpiece in a napkin ring like it is here.

Trip over to Opus Gluei and see what other ways to use the feather image in your work....its out latest challenge.  Please join in.