FEATHER FLOWERS.

Putaruru Press, Volume V, Issue 177, 24 March 1927, Page 5

FEATHER FLOWERS.

MAKE THEM AT HOME. The feather flower has come to stay —both as a form of table decoration and as a buttonhole, so that it is worth while to learn how to fashion it at home, ' Goose feathers dyed and cut to shape, form the basis of the greater number of the feather blooms. Feathers culled' from the farmyard are apt to be soiled, but they may 1)0 cleaned by means of a little methylated spirit. The same spirit forms the medium for the dissolving of the dyes used in the majority of cases. It leaves the surface of the tinted feather' fresh and dewy, and therefore specially suitable for the representation of a flower-petal. Feathers are difficult tilings to arrange unless you happen to know how to go to work. The best way is to pierce the stem with a largo darning needle and pass through the hole a length of florist’s wire. When all the petals are wired, the wires themselves are brought together in a little clump at the base of the flower. Thus they form the foundation of the stem, which may be covered in brown or green paper, or in gutta-percha. A little seccotine will finish off all duds. For the inner portions of the flowers, small pheasants feathers arc useful; and tiny feathers shed at moulting times by the household canary or parrot may also be worked in to give t.hc requisite touch of colour.-