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resonanteye — javelina
Published: 2011-12-01 12:39:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 917; Favourites: 32; Downloads: 12
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Description
javelina totem mountRelated content
Comments: 16
Wow. I'm used to seeing those crappy reproductions, ya know? "Eagle" feathers that don't have the correct shape and such. You did such a good job on them I'd kinda be scared to own them. Thank you for sharing your processes with us!
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naw, a simple turn-over and you can tell. the backs aren't painted haha
But yeah, you just really have to be anal about it, and take some actual time. like anything else, the more you put into it the better it looks.
I've sometimes spent weeks working on a mounted piece and people glance at it and don't even see half of what's there, it's a lot of stuff that goes unnoticed.
You have a good eye, thanks for giving me a chance to talk about what goes into these.
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the cat-tails were dried in a salt box. I wanted them to keep their roundness and not press them. for the skull, I obtained it when it was already clean- but it had to be degreased. I do that in a degreaser bath with heat for a week, then use a bit of peroxide to whiten. I stain the skulls with waterproof inks, then use matte fixative on those. The teeth on this one are painted with oil paints.
A friend who is native american gave me a large bag of buffalo teeth; he is a res guy and gets tons of them. I have no idea how he cleaned them.
The javelina was a purchase I made from a skull collector I know in the southwest. They were found in the desert.
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the process: plain feathers, in a weird grey. lay torn paper over them then spray with water-based fabric dye in a darker grey or brown. then let em dry. then I take a flea comb and brush them to shape, sometimes I trim them too to reshape the feather, or take off the fuzzy bits. then spray to fix- hairspray (aquanet is matte, so I prefer that) and then matte fixative to hold it all in place. then I use them on a mount.
the duck feathers were an experiment, I can try to find a picture of how I did those. i used white duck flight feathers, trimmed them to shape with a razor held at an angle (I wanted the edges softer, not abrupt) then scrumbled over them with a brush using oil-based paint mixed with matte medium. really dark umber/indigo mixed to make a near-black. that made a pretty good shape, almost eagle-feather like, color and all.
I want to try to get bigger white goose feathers and do more "eagle" feathers with them, the ones I made last time were way too small.
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I WISH I could get real hawk feathers. *deep sigh*
I have another piece that has duck feather in it, that are dyed to look like eagle feathers. they have a similar shape, but are way tinier of course.
I get most of my feathers from the farms of friends. luckily they save any ncie ones they get for me.
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*Seriously*? Guinea hen feathers are spotted, not striped.
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they're dyed. they were plain feathers, not the nice spotted ones.
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Oh wow--those are really nice reproductions! I've only seen them on goose feathers.
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They're not shaped like guinea feathers...
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I posted a bit of my process up above for you, too, if you're interested.
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when I got them they were more pointed. they're ruffed up to be squared-looking. then I spray them with (top secret) aquanet hairpsray, then a fixative. It holds the hairs in place to make it shaped. kinda like shaping a paintbrush.
my friend from deadwood oregon owns a fowl farm, she brought me a huge bag of feathers. I'll see if I can ask her the breed name for these for ya!
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word from facebook farm friend:
"the bag I sent came from the guinea pens, there are rock hens there too, and our geese in the next pen, they're a mix from everyone I think"
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