Feather Bustle

[chitimacha1974]

New thread...I now have just over 2 dozen hawk feathers. Approximately how many eathers would it take to make a rather "full", u-shaped traditional dance bustle? Has anyone ever made one with hawk feathers? They're quite smaller than the goose feathers of my present bustle.

Huya,
Jim

[nativelohaus]

hmmmm, i think that you would probably need at least twice that many to make it real full. i have a friend making my son one and that is from 2 sets of hawk wings but it will be a double. i guess it depends on how large you want the bustle to be and how big you are. that would only be about 12 feathers to a side.

[DCP]

With wide feathers, you need 15+ per side. Hawks are pretty slim, so I would go almost double that. The length of the extensions also plays a huge role in the overall look. Hawks will definately need extensions . . .

Whatever you do, please don't put loooooong extentions on them if you don't have a lot of feathers. I really hate those "tinker-toy" bustles I see from time to time.

[wardancer]

I've built several hawk bustles. I wouldn't extend over 6" unless you're putting in a second layer. I used about 26 wing feathers , per side , for an adult size bustle. It measures about 30" across.
I was lucky , I found several very large hawks and kinda sorted and picked the biggest feathers. Don't be impatient , if it's meant to be , they will come to you. Later