A Feather For My Cap

A Feather for My Cap

wool blend felt, felted wool, acrylic paint, embroidery floss, thread, acrylic gel medium, metal pin finding.

74/100 in 100 days creative challenge, day 25 of August Everyday

This is a new feather I created. It's for the hat I got the other day to replace the fake leather button that came with it. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be, but it was fun figuring out how the media would react together. I also realized that perhaps I didn't know exactly what a feather looked like, not exactly. This feather went on quite a journey to get to it's final state.

It's not quite the teal feather that I was envisioning. The felted wool I started with was actually an emerald green. Can you see it in there? And when I was trying to figure a way to make it more sturdy, without making it weighty (since it is a feather after all) I decided to add the purple felt to the back, which meant I could attach the pin finding without disturbing the painted feather. But then when I was trying to attach the purple felt, I wanted it more sturdy than just the line of the quill, which was my original plan. That's when I lit upon the idea of the embroidered dots. I used both navy blue and teal. So there's no shimmer on this feather, but all the different colors give the illusion. Yay me.

Actually, I should have shown the other feather that I made and decided I didn't want to use on my hat. Yes. I did two feathers. And I missed posting yesterday, so I really should have done two pieces today.

Honestly, I keep running out of time to do things. I want to post every day so I can keep up with my creative, and push myself to make more things every day. I'm still trying to catch up with my hundred things.

Come to think of it, I started off behind, so the entire time, I was trying to catch up to myself. I have just decided that is not a good way to start.

You've got to start where you are. You've got to, or you are automatically not "enough".

Dare I say it? I am extending my 100 days challenge to be 100 days from the day I actually started, rather than the day I should have started, June 1st.

Look. There's another "should". Why should I have started on June 1st? Because I did last year? Because someone else did?

This whole creativity thing is not really about shoulds. It's about the journey that I am on personally. My creativity is my journey. Just like your creativity is your journey.

Just like this feather started off one thing and turned into another. Just like I thought my life would be expected and smooth and it turned out to be something, well, not quite like what seemed to be the logical path.

Such is life? A meandering path. Detours, delays, scenic overlooks, occasional pile ups, truck stop snacks, running out of gas, speed traps. Oy. That's a lot of things stopping the trip.

But still we travel on.