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Ostrich

Started by Traditionalist, October 27, 2011, 12:09:41 AM

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Traditionalist



Ostrich herl, which is taken from an ostrich plume,was once used extensively by milliners and other trades for extravagant Victorian hats, among other things, and was fairly widely available as a result of this. Although I doubt that people in the Dales, or many other remote areas would have used it. As far as I am aware, it is only used on a few spiders patterns, and then only in dyed black. It is sold either in "quill" pieces, or as loose herl. The quill pieces are better of course. The quality can vary enormously with regard to the abundance, texture, and length of the flue. Shown is a piece of red dyed quill, and a packet of "loose" black herl. I did not want to take the loose herl out of the packet, so the photo of the black herl is not very good! It is not very robust, and one would probably be better advised to use dubbed fur as a substitute. Short soft black fur, like dyed black mole, either touch dubbed, or in split thread for instance, using dyed black Arctic fox underfur or similar, would be ideal for this, or any other appropriate fur.


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