Rope and Feather Palm Trees

This week I have been making palm trees for a desert board using feathers and rope. This has probably been done before, but it was the first time for me.These were put together both cheaply and, I think, effectively.The only real cost was time as the construction needs a bit of waiting around between stages. The ingredients were coloured feathers from a craft store, rope with a particular weave that reminded me of palm tree trunks, wire to stiffen the whole thing and a cork base or CD.

The feathers were painted using acrylic paint, or more accurately running the feather through a dish of paint. Then these were dried until stiff, taking care so they didn’t stick together or to anything else. Then the rope was cut to length and glued to a CD, inserting a wire down the middle to stiffen it. The whole trunk was primed black and again left to dry. When dry holes were drilled into the top and feathers epoxied in place. Again, after leaving to dry the trees were painted and ground textured. All that the things cost me was time.