
A couple weekends ago, at the Le Societe de Pique-Nique event at Rengstorff House in Shoreline Park, our party took a little walk over to a nearby lake, where we were assaulted by 10000 pounds of goosepoop and an army of goose feathers. From the looks of it, there had been some massive goose battle recently, and the ground was littered with wing feathers. Like a kid in a candy shop, I scampered around picking them up - and Craig obligingly did as well, bless his heart - and I ended up with a grocery bag full of Canada Goose feathers of varying shapes and sizes.


The Beauty Supply Shop:
- Lady Clairol Professional Hair Lightener
- 20% Hydrogen Peroxide solution
- application brush
- mixing bowl
- rubber gloves
At home:
- dishsoap
- a work surface (I used tinfoil to cover the counter)
- drying towel
Step 1: Prepare the Feathers. Wash them. Toss them in the bathtub, drizzle in some dishsoap, and work it through each feather. Rinse them thoroughly. Pat them dry on the towel. Depending on what kind of feathers you have, they will react differently when wet - I tried a couple turkey feathers along with my goose, and the turkey feathers were miserable wet sticks while the goosefeathers, of course, kept their shape and were fairly water-repellent.


Step 3: Slather it on the feathers. When you're "painting" the bleach onto the feathers, make sure to get it between the little hair of the feather. The application brush you bought has stiff bristles, so it's pretty easy. Brush the goop on BOTH sides of the feather.
Step 4: Let 'em sit. Half an hour is about right. You'll see the color changing, and the longer you leave it on the lighter the color will get, but don't leave it on for TOO long (an hour) because the bleach will start to eat the feathers.

There you have it! Now your feathers are ready to be dyed or "painted" (in my case). You may have noticed that the feathers did not bleach to white. Very dark-colored feathers will not make it all the way to white. Instead, they'll turn golden, which in my case is exactly what I wanted. Feathers work just like hair - if your hair is black and you try to bleach it blonde you'll end up with orange. If you're preparing your feathers for dying, the golden ones will still dye to brilliant colors, but not yellows or peaches, nothing lighter in value than they are already.

Next up I will be "painting" the feathers - adding on the spots and bars that Barn Owls have on their plumage. I've got a couple ideas for this, one of which already failed (RIT dye.). Look for a future post!
Oh my gosh that came out AMAZINGLY.
ReplyDeleteAre those my barn owl feathers? The bleached feathers are brilliant! Have you thought of going the super basic route and marking the goose feathers with permanent markers. It just might work....
ReplyDeleteThose are indeed your feathers!
ReplyDeleteI attacked one of the feathers with a sharpie last night and it worked REALLY well. The only thing is that I will need to get a brown or grey one, which might be a little harder to find. The banding on the owl feathers is really subtle. The other option is to mix up some brown hair dye and paint that on.
That's very cool! I'm excited to see the finished product.
ReplyDeleteI love your stuffed owl...and feathers of course.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a great tutorial! I tried this on different feathers and there were some interesting and beautiful results. :D
ReplyDeleteI hope it's okay for You that I write a tutorial in Swedish as I could'nt find any tutorials in my mother tongue. There just needs to be one. Especially as bleached feather can be really beautiful.
Oh my gosh wow this tutorial is great! But i really need to have white feathers.. Do you think painting them white is a good idea? I don't want the feathers looking too crusty or stiff or anything.. Hm. Good job though!
ReplyDeleteHi I love and am looking for feather just like the owl ones you received. can i ask where you brought them from. ??
ReplyDeleteThe content in this article is really helpful.
ReplyDeleteYou have so much dedication, I've started at the beginning and it is amazing
ReplyDelete