Fantastic Feathers
Have you ever realized that early  scribes  wrote all the classics and holy books with the help of quill pens? Every kid enjoyed chasing colorful butterflies? In the game of Badminton the flights of a shuttle cock spellbind the spectators? All of these examples have one thing in common : Feathers! Feathers, the eternal fantasy of human beings. Feathers have long been among the favorite objects lending wings to the inspiration of mankind.

Feather Crafts and Paintings

It’s believed that the feather crafts developed gradually with the human civilizations of the world. The prehistoric cave men also used feathers for decorations. Several tribes in South Africa still use feather as jewelery. Every civilization of world has records of some or the other the other sorts of feather crafts or some form of feather paintings. The Egyptians, the Mayans, First People, the Celts, the Vikings, the Mexicans, and countless other races have developed their unique styles of feather crafts.  Chinese artisans have a traditions of making flowers from birds’ feathers, Indian homes usually have  some or the other sort of domestic feather article like feather fans, feather paintings or just few peacock feathers as a good omen. Recently the Chinese and the Japanese artisans have started producing feather wool and feather textiles.  In Mexico, the art of feather painting is about 2600 years old. The feather work was carried out by highly skilled artisans. In some other parts of the world innumerable decorative artware are made with different varieties of birds’ feathers. These feather painting are considered to be unique, one of a kind originals decorations in any home.

Exclusive Treatment & Variety

Every feather article requires unique treatment.

Firstly, the feathers are carefully washed and dried. Then the challenges of space limitation, balancing the paint to allow the feather’s texture to show through and working on a non-stationary target begin. A feather’s not totally flat … and they move.Therefore every artist take time to learn the right surface preparation in detail first.

Mostly painted in acrylic on legal domestic and game bird feathers in a variety of subject matter ranging from faces, scenes, images of mythical beasts to realistic wildlife designs, the feather paintings are again becoming a craze in several countries .

Painted feathers are often framed to display all their beauty. Others are worn as a necklace, earring or other kind of jewelry. In more traditional regions painted feathers are still worn as hair ornaments.

Mastering the Art Yourself

Recently another artform has become popular in the computer age. Now the feathers are scanned in and the image is edited to enhance the visual appeal with the help of computer programs.With the help of modern painting and animation programs simple feathers can be turned into stunning pixel-masterpieces.

Some universities and arts & craft institutes run regular courses that teach artists this rare art form. The feather painting is considered to be an exclusive art form not only because of ‘feather’ used as canvas but due to a very limited painting area, the surface being not easy to paint on and the ultimate outcome which remains stable for several years.

Feathers have also developed into models for the now again modern bead objects. There are some free sites teaching the art form. Click Link-1 for buying a book here, learn with Free Tuturial,Tutorial-2, Tutorial-3, Tutorial-4, Free Video Tutuorial, Video Tutorial-2,Feather Craft Tutorials,

The artist Christina M. Wojcik gives advise on how to make bead feathers on her website.

Great Feather Artists’ Sites

Please click on the names to reach the site.

Chris Rhoades-Painted Feathers

K.Lawson

Feather Fantasies

Feather Grafics

Feather Art

Feather Pouch

Painting with Feathers

Peace Pipes

Artful Feather Textiles

Magic Peruvian Feathers

Colombian Feather Textiles

Beaded Feathers

Cheese Feathers

NativeTech – Tara Prindle

Bead Feathers

Feather Painting Webring

Talking Feathers – Feather Characters

“That´s Leather!” – Leather Feathers

Feather Pins by M.C. Witenko

Here are some other good sites as well where you will be able to find and download free feather paintings and may purchase them also. Link-1, Link-2, Link-3, Link-4, Link-6, Link-7, Link-8 and Link-9.

Find out more.