Paper Feathers 2.0

Remember when I made these paper feathers last year?  And showed you HOW I made them.

They sold really well in my booth at Stars, so I decided to make more.  But I noticed that the last few leftovers got very ‘crunchy’ over time and cracked and broke easily when handled.   Time to re-think the process to make them hold up better and longer.

Pretty much the same supplies: bamboo skewers, old sheet music and book pages and glue.  I decided to use regular Elmer’s glue instead of thinned down tacky glue this time.

 

First I glued the bamboo skewer down the center of a scrap piece of book page.  Left them to dry overnight.   I did a couple dozen at a time.

I used scrap cardboard, the fronts and backs of old cereal boxes, cut into thirds; glued the skewer/paper to the center of one side of the cardboard.  Let dry.

Then I glued a piece of pre-cut sheet music or book page paper to both sides of the cardboard.  This project uses a LOT of glue.  The average size on my feathers is 7″ x 3″, and I went through a 4oz bottle of glue for each dozen feathers.

I used the handles of my scissors, but you could use a boning tool or any other ‘hard edge’.  After I placed my paper atop the skewer side of my cardboard, I ran the handles of my scissors along the skewer, to work out any air bubbles.

Once I had several of them this far, I IRONED them.  Yep. I ironed them.  This helped set the glue and work out any air bubbles and to keep the cardboard nice and flat.  The glue wasn’t 100% dry at this point, so I let them sit overnight before cutting them.

Then I cut them into a feather shape, then I cut the feather slits.

I came across one small kerfuffle in the process.  When I cut the slits in some of them, the paper was coming loose from the cardboard.  This happened after I had had no problem with about 40 of them, so I was perplexed!

I just tossed out the one that came apart.  A few minutes later, it happened again?!?  What’s the deal with THIS batch??  I just tossed that one out too.  Then it happened to the very next one.  What the heck am I doing wrong??  Is this whole batch going to fall apart???

I decided to investigate a little further and pulled the paper completely off the ones that were coming apart and discovered that they were all from the same box!  So I ended up having six of them in total come apart like this.  Not really sure what was so different about that particular cereal box that caused this to happen; but I can tell you that it was the one and only ‘store brand’ cereal box that I had in my stash.  So, FWIW, keep that in mind if you decide to make these. 

I’ve already taken a big batch of them to Stars, and made a second batch for the upcoming Spring show.