Here's my latest batch of acceptable casts from various sized feathers. I won't let the cat out of the bag yet, as I am not 100% confident of success, so want to keep working on it until I am.

It will take a few months yet, as I am about to head off again on holidays, but I will get there. I am sure it is all about the glue, and I have tried heaps, as we just don't have the range there is overseas.

I don't want to produce blanks for sale , it is not my business, I'll leave that to the experts trying to make a buck. But when someone asks me if I could cast the feathers of their pet budgie (or similar) that died into a pen, I want to be able to say, Yes

I am also playing with butterfly wings and finding similar glue & casting issues. As if feathers weren't hard enough, these are even more complicated due to the fragile and brittle nature of the wings and their colour coatings (tpuch them and they are gone), but looks like I might have that one close too. The process is similar, but not the same unfortunately at the moment

Left to right:
Butterfly, small male Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo feather, Parrot feather, large female Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo feather, large Guinea Fowl feather (1 dyed blue, the other plain).



Cheers

Attached Images

P9190339.JPG (126.5 KB, 397 views)

__________________

Neil they are looking good mate, the butterfly wings are great, be so fragile. Like the feather too but the butterfly wings are something special.

Cheers
Darren

I wish you all the luck in the world with this pursuit.
watching with interest

__________________
regards
Nick (I really don't need a Stubby!)
veni, vidi, tornavi

Looking good Neil but I have to ask how did you get the butterfly to stay still?
David

__________________
giveitagoturning @hotmail.com

Looking forward to seeing the end result when you reckon you have nailed it, these are very impressive, well done.

You need to sneak up behind him with a pre-glued brass tube. At the last second,
you throw a rock way over to the other side so the butterfly has to turn his head to
see what the noise was. It helps if you point and say "What was that?!?" When
the butterfly turns his head, stick the tube on his wings. It also helps if you have a
tiny ankle bracelet with a chain so he can't fly away.
Sorry to give away your secrets, Neil..

__________________
maker of the original ResinSaver mold

Now I know where I went wrong I hit it with the rock damm.
David

__________________
giveitagoturning @hotmail.com

__________________

Great work Neil, The butterfly is surely unique and will start others thinking along those lines. Feathers and castings look terrific mate. Look forward to hearing more of your technique.

__________________
I'm not fat, I'm just easy to see
Cheers John

very beautiful and unusual work, i would like to try my hand at this with my pens. where do you get the resins from in Queensland? Can they supply colours to mix thru?
Is is a special resin?
did u read a book about this or an article that i can get hold of.

Have a look in the old casting posts and use the search function this will give you a start. There are other pen forums that have similar info as well.

__________________
...if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail...

www.canoesandlampshades.com

just so you name them right ,
the female red tail black cockatoo feather shown above is actually a Yellow tailed black cockatoo feather ( male or female )
great pens , well done

Thanks for the clarification

__________________

did you have to CA over the butterfly wing before casting in resin? That thing looks to fragile to work with.

Phil