The Making of the Feathers Part 1

Having got the main segments complete I now had to construct the feathers, this was somewhat complicated by the fact that there were 12 of these, and that each had to be constructed of at least 5 pieces (7 for the two end feathers) so 64 pieces in total. As for why I did it this way, well anything less just didn't feel right. To give you a sample of my workflow Here are the steps that go into making feathers.

Step 1: I started with a big block of yellow cedar and drilled through the entire thing twice.
Step 2: The block was rough shaped with chisels to establish the general curve of all the pieces.
Step 3: The block was split in half lengthwise using a knife. The fun thing about wood grain is that when you learn where the cleavage planes are it splits very easily and predictably, thus allowing you to save hours of sawing.
Step 4: So predictably in fact that splitting 14 separate pieces out of the block goes very very fast.
Step 5: The parts are then carved with a knife into their final shape.