How to make (decent) feathers with craft foam!
Hello fellow cosplayers/crafters!Â
So today, I was asked how I made my feathers for my Griselda (Odin Sphere) wings using craft foam and⌠well⌠I was on mobile and Tumblr ate it.
So Iâll make one with pictures! It wonât be that great but oh wellâŚ. Itâs only a small tutoâŚ
Scupting tool/exacto knife/cutter (something to make creases)
Scissors or a cutter (to cut)
Acrylic paint or spray paint (whichever you prefer)
STEP 1:Â Cut the feathers.
Be creative. Make ovals ones, banana shaped, whatever you want them to look like! I drew templates on paper and traced over them because I wanted them to have a specific form. Cut them with scissors or a cutter. I used scissors to have that sort of angle and irregular borders.
You want it to look legit, right? Well, you got to put effort and patience in it! To guide my blade hand so it doesnât look like a mess, I crease a line in the middle to know where the center of my feather is. Follow the shape, donât make a straight line or it wonât look natural!Â
Next, make diagonal lines toward the line you just made. You can make both sides symetrical or you can be irregular like me. Be creative!
Now that you made them look like this, they look like leaves, right? Donât worry! Weâll fix that with an exacto knife! Cut little triangles on your feather just like when you split the little hair on a real feather! Itâll look better and more feather-ish.
STEP 4: Hot glue details!
It looks ready to go, right? Wrong! See that white line on this real feather?
Well, you want THAT. So use hot glue on that line you made that you thought useless! Be very patient because you can easily mess up! Hot glue tends to love making air bubbles or huge SURPRISE LUMPS! So be slow, go back and forth and if you mess up, rip the glue off and start again.Try to loosen up the trigger at the end to have a smaller line.
ALSO, be mindful that hot glue leaves small dingly hot glue strings if you donât clean it off well! it can drag your feathers together and mutate them or even flip over on your desk and thatâs just the worst thing youâll ever experience.
Be careful not to burn yourself like me!!!
STEP 4: OPTIONALÂ Prime the feathers!
This step is optional but recommended if you donât use spray paint to color them. Why? Because the hot glue doesnât like acrylic paint and itâll still be visible even if you put multiple layers. So prime your feathers with whatever white primer you like IN A WELL VENTILLATED AREA. Let it dry. (Mine took 20 minutes to dry but just follow what the instructions tells you depending on your brand.) You can do both sides or add an other coat, but I didnât because Iâm lazy.
STEP 5: Painting the feathers!
Here comes the fun part! Use some acrylic paint or spray paint to color them! Obviously, you know how to use a can of spray paint, so I wonât bother explaining this. You want to do it with acrylic? GREAT! So get your paint ready and start mixing the colors you want! (I recommend priming your feathers first because of the hot glue problem and youâll need 2 layers of paint if you didnât prime them)
Apply a first coat of your base color on your feather. Move your brush on the same direction as the lines you did so you donât see random vertical lines, plus, more realistic!
When itâs fully dry, you can add highlights! I usually add a lighter shade of the base color all along the feather line thinggy and spread to the outside of the feather but not all the way! Then I add a darker shade on the upper edges of the feathers because you know⌠itâs nice.
If you donât want to add glitters, youâre done! Congrats to you!
You want to feel like a princess? Or you just like sparkling thingsâŚ? Then letâs add glitters!! I got mine really cheap at Walmart. (Martha Stewart crafts. Be mindful that these makes your feathers just a LITTLE bit darker)
What I like to do is start from the feather line and spread it towards the outside and add a few on the borders. Put a few on the feather line to have that extra spark! And like painting, go the same direction as the diagonal lines to avoid the lines.
Sparkles got in the creases? AWESOME. Itâll be extra sparkly!
Now assemble it however you like with hot glue. It made nice wings like these or a pretty headdress that I never posted!
*Be aware that the feathers will easily bend because itâs still craft foam after all!Â
**You can do the same process on the back of the feather if youâd like.
***The thickness of the craft foam depends from sheet to sheet! I got some who were thinner than others. I got mine at my local art supply store OmerDeserres and they were very irregular (8.5x11 sheets) compared to the ones I got at Walmart. (I think theyâre 5x8?? but it comes in packs of 50!!! )
HAPPY COSPLAYING/CRAFTING.
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