Fabulous Feather Fan!

I posted a few times about the epic plans of a feather fan for this outfit. I'd made a feather fan about 8 years ago but it was woefully destroyed and I hadn't had the time or even the inclination to make another.
I had the perfect excuse to make a new one, so with that in mind Gaetana and I hoped on Ebay and ordered a few hundred ostrich feathers.. Thus the planning started! I posted earlier this week that I needed to find something suitable for the handle. We'd talked about having some various things to use, and were looking around for crown molding for the fan head but still the pieces for the handle eluded us. One afternoon after dropping Ty off at work I headed over to Micheals for some beading needles. I was (and am) trying to get all my obligation projects completed so I can get to work on my IRCC stuff without guilt of the "I promised to do this" looming over me.
I figured I'd check out the wood cut section and see what they had since Gaetana mentioned she'd had no luck finding pieces. I looked over the selection of pre-cut pieces and didn't find anything really that made me too excited.
Except this...

 I kept staring at these do it yourself unfinished candlestick holders. Honestly there were about the size I was looking for and I figured parts could be removed with a saw if necessary. So there I am standing in a craft store, holding my unfinished candlestick holder and waving it around like it has feathers on the end. It was a whoooole whopping 2.99 so I picked it up and figured worst case scenario, its not like I was spending a fortune on it.

Later that night at work I kept working at that brass insert and finally got it popped out without too much of a struggle.
Fast forward about a week. Its Saturday morning and I am up gawd awful early for a hair appointment. I haven't had my hair colored in over a year because you aren't supposed to do that stuff when your preggers, but Lyvy has been out for 4 months now and I'm going insane with my regrowth. Salon time it is!! I got my hair colored three different shades of red, and it looks AMAZING!!
Anyways I get home and my feathers are still not there. The seller promised they would be shipped and I should receive them within 4 business days. Its been 9 days and I haven't seen anything :|
At this point I am deliberately stalling to see if the mail brings my feathers. If not, its going to be an easy craft night at Gaetana's just working on the handles.

SUCCESS! The mail comes and I receive this awesome package with fabulously fluffy feathers in it!
After a quick run to the store and some cutting directions I end up with this as a finished handle.

Now isn't that awesome? I ended up spray painting it black, and then after it dried I did a light dusting of gold across it and got a super awesome antique look to it. Laid out the feathers in the pattern I wanted and started drilling holes.

I actually ended up with two fans and I like them both, though the handle on the second one needs some attention..

Couple of things I learned (or relearned) during this project:

• The veins of ostrich feathers (the real ones) are HUGE. Drill with care
• Because the veins are so big, you have to keep that in mind when you are planning your fan head. If you don't have the width, you're not going to get as fluffy as you want.
• Hot glue does not hold together spray painted wood
• hot glue does burn
• if you're baby starts to cough and snot during the project, shes sick.
• feathers are AWESOME!