Paintbrushes from feathers

This year my kids are studying the medieval ages (yay for homeschooling). As we were watching Episode 1 of Tudor Monestary Farm (links to all the cool BBC farm series videos are here), they saw this segment on making feather brushes:



They're sleeping now, and so I'm trying my hand at it so we can make brushes tomorrow. Here's another video I found about feather brushes:



Fascinatingly enough, the first one uses the middle of a feather, while the second uses just the tip for the bristles. I'll be making handles for these hopefully tomorrow, but just looking at it, I'm thinking the first way (using the middle of the feather) will make for a much nicer brush.

I really love how the base of the quill is used to hold the feather "bristles". It's such a perfect idea!

Thank you for posting these great resources. I have also made brushed from pine needles and yuccas. Very easy. I make my own pigments from found rocks.

WOW, never heard of feathers for paintbrushes.
I have feathers from Managua, Nicaragua, that are canvas for hand painted pic's, I bought on my visit in 2013.

I had thought I was rather clever using a chicken feather to paint numbers on my new (used) mailbox.  I was just trying to avoid getting a brush for a one time project and having to clean it with toxic stuff.  Looks like I was just using an old tool instead.

Larisa Walk wrote:I had thought I was rather clever using a chicken feather to paint numbers on my new (used) mailbox.  I was just trying to avoid getting a brush for a one time project and having to clean it with toxic stuff.  Looks like I was just using an old tool instead.

Years back, I'd watched this same Tudor Monestary Farm episode. Back then, I didn't take the step of actually making a feather paintbrush. But, when I needed to apply stinky bone sauce, I just grabbed a duck feather to apply it. Then I stuck the stinky feather in a vulnerable tree. I loved not having to waste a brush on the bone sauce!

Here's some quick pictures of the paintbrushes my kids and I made yesterday. My son had the great idea of making the handle from another feather to make an all-feather paintbrush. It was a lot easier than carving a handle (the kids did that, first, through.). Once I figure out where he put his all-feather quill, I'll take a picture.

Here's the other brushes we made.

Oh my word my daughter is going to lose her mind!!
Deffo doing this with them when they get home!

I made this today! Sorry for being lazy but I'll share my Instagram post, as I don't know how to extract individual photos from it: my feather brushes made of forsythia and cockerel feathers.
A ton of possibilities! Thanks for the idea!!!

Everyone here probably knows this, but just to be sure, I'll state it:

Be sure you only use game bird feathers (chicken, goose, turkey, etc.) to do this. It is illegal to use/own most wild bird feathers. Even songbird feathers are illegal to keep.

If anyone here does this project, please post back how you liked the results. It sounds like a fun project!

Stacie Kim wrote:Everyone here probably knows this, but just to be sure, I'll state it:

Be sure you only use game bird feathers (chicken, goose, turkey, etc.) to do this. It is illegal to use/own most wild bird feathers. Even songbird feathers are illegal to keep.

If anyone here does this project, please post back how you liked the results. It sounds like a fun project!

Most chicken, geese, and ducks are domesticated, though there are also many ducks and geese that are game/wild. I'm not sure how the laws work, in regards to found songbird feathers, though I'm pretty sure selling songbird and raptor feathers, as well as endangered species feathers would be likely to get you into trouble, almost anywhere.

Of course,  the next question is, what about hair?

don't forget the chicken.

Goose flight feather for the bristles,  smaller feather for the ferral (?), and a stick for the handle.

It actually works!   But I'll need to get better glue for next time.

Such a beautiful video you posted from Tudor Monastary Farms.  Thank you for posting that.  Also... sweet photo of your son!  Oh my goodness so precious.