Turkey Fan/Feather Art

M

MS_Strut

Active Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2022
Messages
36
Reaction score
85
Location
Chattanooga
Made this one earlier this spring and about to start a different one from my 2nd bird last season.

Been putting it off so long and now season is creeping up on me.

For my first attempt I am definitely happy with it but there are a couple of small things I would do differently in the future.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1402.webp
    IMG_1402.webp
    350.4 KB · Views: 1
  • IMG_1481.webp
    IMG_1481.webp
    183.3 KB · Views: 1
  • IMG_1482.webp
    IMG_1482.webp
    202.3 KB · Views: 1
  • IMG_1480.webp
    IMG_1480.webp
    110.1 KB · Views: 1
Last edited:
MS_Strut said:
Made this one earlier this spring and about to start a different one from my 2nd bird last season.

Been putting it off so long and now season is creeping up on me.

For my first attempt I am definitely happy with it but there are a couple of small things I would do differently in the future.
Click to expand...
Very nice 👍🏻
 
Hduke86 said:
Man that looks awesome. Fingers crossed I may shoot one this year and have to pick your brain about doing one myself.
Click to expand...
Shoot me a message for sure and I'll try to help. It just takes patience and time and thinking through each step.

I'm no expert though. I probably had 15-20 hours after work in this one but could get it done in less now. Prepping each feather is what is time consuming.

Skinning it correctly is one of the most important parts to the whole process. Here is Jeff Frederick's video on how he skins them. There are a couple of other videos of how to do it on you tube as well.



Jeff Frederick's stuff is beautiful and I'm not 100% positive exactly how he gets his feathers to lay flat. At least they look like they are all flat where mine sort of "rest" on the one below it.

I don't skin mine like his necessarily but it's the same idea basically. I also do gently "wash" mine after I've skinned it if anything for bugs and ticks. It's basically just a dip and gentle pet while submerged under dawn water. I guess freezing it would do the same but just seems like a hassle to thaw out and still have raw skin essentially. You have to dry it out with a hair dryer a particular way if you do wash it.

I also skin it and cover the skin in borax and spread the fan and put it all out feathers facing up on a big cardboard sheet to dry it all out. Takes about 20-30 days. That way I can take my time and work on it whenever I want to. I'm not sure how the skinned out turkey would be to work with after it's been frozen, shipped, and thawed like Jeff would require.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top