#wings tutorial

i got me some feathers from walmart, i think it was 12 or 16 gauge wire but anything sturdy will work, felt (again from walmart), and some strips of cloth i cut from this bag my dad destroyed. 

i realized partway through taking process pictures that i should have taken them in landscape so bear with me. 

you’ll want your felt, feathers, and cloth to be the same colour. it’ll make your life easier. 

i also used a lot of hot glue.

okay okay so hear me out. you will probably want to buy 5 packages of feathers because just a few is probably not enough, right? well you see how big my wings are? like i mean they’re not that big but still. i covered both sides with one and maybe a bit of the second package. 

it’s honestly stupid how many feathers they put in that package. now i have 4 1/2 freaking bags of feathers. what the heck. i could make 50 wings.

i would estimate maybe 1 package to a double-sided square foot of fabric? and buy an extra package just in case. but it also might be more and you might want to use better quality ones that actually have feathers that look like flight feathers rather than this downy crap. 

anyway. 

i bent my wire into the general idea of where the bone would be to give the wing some structure. as a general guideline, there should be 2 joints, the “elbow” and the “wrist” of the bird, but they’re a lot closer to the shoulder (?) than on a human. if we had bird limbs we would have tiny arms and terrifyingly long fingers. 

then you just get out your felt-y stuff and you cut that ish up right after you trace a bit of a shape you want based on the “skeleton” you just made. apparently doves have stupidly shaped wings that only go up, but most birds will have a cooler shape, or you could make your own, i guess. i swear my punctuation is actually better this is just how i type informally because talking in tumblr tags has screwed me over.

okay okay time to concentrate for a while and not ramble. i swear i can concentrate for more than a paragraph. 

so yeah. it’s cut up. now apparently the only way to attack wire to a piece of cloth or the like is with another strip of cloth, since hot glue won’t adhere it. it’ll just kinda fall off? so you take those strips of cloth you just cut and throw it on top of the hot glue you drizzled over that wire. 

it can look ugly because no one gives are crap. you’re covering this with feathers. 

once that’s finished, start gluing on feathers. doves seems to have 3 major layers of feathers and i’m guessing that most birds do too, so kinda try to emulate that. doesn’t have to actually be 3, but idk. just have layers, dude. 

start with the outermost layer, furthest from the bones. this will make it so you don’t have stupid looking feather ends on the top. instead, they’ll be hidden under - surprise - more feathers. there were a lot of feathers did i mention that?

so a note on this. i tried placing all the feathers down and then putting glue behind them and while it worked, it was super messy and i had fluff all over my hot glue gun. i would suggest just laying down a line of hot glue and slapping your feather on that. pat it a few times to make sure it stays, maybe. make sure you don’t burn your fingers, but i did that about 20 times and i’m fine. 

also, as with any time you’re doing something new, start with the side that no one cares about. in this case, it’ll be the side that will be facing your back. i mean, maybe you’re making your wings stick straight out of your back and there is no semi-hidden side, in which case, that’s fine but one side will probably be uglier, just so you know. 

i also used a lot more hot glue than i thought i would. i think i went through maybe 5 or 6 sticks on the feathers alone? so yeah #1 the wings were a lot heavier than they looked because of the glue and #2 go buy yourself an extra pack just in case.

anyway. continue layering those feathers. when you get to the top, kind of lay them in the direction of the “bone”, from inside to outside. it’ll make it look more natural and also cover up those ugly feather stem things. 

then, kind of bend the wing to make it look more like a wing???

yeah. 

you’ll notice that i left a bit of extra wire. i should have left more but no one cares. that will help with making the harness the way i made it, which was the stupidest way possible. 

so i took some cardboard from the back of a construction paper package, a t-back bra or whatever they’re called, and, lo and behold, some more wire, cloth, and hot glue. if you’re not stupid like me and make the two wings with one wire that connects in the middle, you won’t need more wire and hot glue. maybe. 

so yeah, i just took that piece of cardboard and folded it half and hot glued that together, then cut it into the shape of the t-back. which was kind of unnecessary because i ended up making a rectangle but no one cares. 

however, you will probably want a thinner part the width of the space you want in the middle so you can fold it over like i did. don’t be stupid and put the glue far away from the the connecting wires. instead, maybe put some hot glue and cloth over the wire and make sure it’s secure before gluing the rest. it’ll make it. less wobbly than mine. alternatively, you can bend the wire a bit so it won’t turn. 

anyway i ended up glueing the two flaps down too and adding wire and cloth along cardboard brace and “bone” of the actual wings on both sides of each wing to make sure they didn’t move around. 

like that, if that makes sense. just add feathers on top if you cover yours because wow i had a lot of feathers and nothing to do with them. 

then, after a lot of guesstimation, i cut two slits in my shirt. it’s a summer camp for kids so i couldn’t just wear a tank top, which would have been a lot easier. dress code, y’know. 

okay, i didn’t take any pictures of this part cause it’s kinda weird, but basically, i used a t-back because it’s easier to clip it together in the front than in the back, since that way your wings won’t fall out. they’ll be kind of stuck in the arm-hole things. you just put them through the straps of the bra, then through the slits in the shirt. 

the slits will probably be too close together to put both wings through easily, so what i did was i just basically shoved most of the entire shebang through one slit, all the way until it was far enough to reach the other one. idk if that makes sense because i forgot to take pictures. you can ask for clarifications if needed.

yeah. then you struggle to put it on without breaking your face and go forth into the world. 

congrats. you have wings now, i guess.