Thread: Help w/ how to make peacock tail

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hello folkss,

i'm being a peacock this year, and i bought a ton of long feathers, but have no idea on how i should attach them to my costume. Im just wearing a royal blue dress, and i want the feathers to fan out to look like a peacocks tail obviously, but heres the kicker, i want to be able to put it down as well , heres some pictures so you gusy know what i mean...









so i have no idea on how to actually going about maing this happen so any ideas would be great!

THANKS!!
Rach

I would suggest asking the people at the furry/fursuiting community I frequent on livejournal. They know EVERYTHING about making stuff like that and they can give you tons of ideas. It takes about a minute to make a Livejournal account and to join the Fursuiting community.

Click here to go to it.

If you don't want to register, I can ask for you and forward the information to you.

would a largish fan mechanism work?

like a folding fan ya know it has the two sturdy sides and the fan cloth or paper in between...

do that only with the feathers and have it set on a small stand that pivots?

i'll sketch something up.... to better define what im sayin...

okay so in the top pic you have a belt with a pivot rig attached to it, consisting of 2 braces/ catch hooks, a small pivot axle and the fan mech.

the lower pic is of the fan mech. which opens and closes like a folding fan, your feathers go in the shaded area. the lil macaroni looking thing is the part that attaches the fan to the axle.

the fan piece should be 1/4 to 1/3 the overall length of the tail

how it works: it rests on the small of your back (pic 3) and when down is on the folded position, when you pull it up into the open position be sure to have it secure against the catch hooks so it doesn't fall over.
the belt doesn't have to be a belt but some structural support in the dress if most likely necessary. the operation is like a regular folding fan held behind your back.

is none of this makes sense... well i can try to better define it but some one might have to step in and interpret the design

Originally Posted by the dogman

okay so in the top pic you have a belt with a pivot rig attached to it, consisting of 2 braces/ catch hooks, a small pivot axle and the fan mech.

the lower pic is of the fan mech. which opens and closes like a folding fan, your feathers go in the shaded area. the lil macaroni looking thing is the part that attaches the fan to the axle.

the fan piece should be 1/4 to 1/3 the overall length of the tail

how it works: it rests on the small of your back (pic 3) and when down is on the folded position, when you pull it up into the open position be sure to have it secure against the catch hooks so it doesn't fall over.
the belt doesn't have to be a belt but some structural support in the dress if most likely necessary. the operation is like a regular folding fan held behind your back.

is none of this makes sense... well i can try to better define it but some one might have to step in and interpret the design

Oh wow. I didn't even think of that! That's a GREAT idea!

hey thanks that is an awesomeeee idea! do you have any idea where i could buy the stuff to make it by any chance?

hardware store? you should be able to copy/ paste the design into a paint program and print it, maybe the instructions too, and take it to a hardware store (or maybe even a hobby shop) and ask them what would be best.

another idea is to post the design pic in the tutorials area and ask them what you would need to build this contraption. i'm pretty sure you can do that....


anyhow a side note for the contraption is to paint it the same color as your feathers or dress to get it to blend better

i'm glad you like it

I was gonna say get some kind of heavy duty fan that you could attach the feathers to and still be able to open it up and fold it down, but I don't know how you would go about it. It looks like dogman has a pretty good thing going already!

That's a great design, Dogman. If you have a hobby or craft store that carries bass wood or spruce strips, get a dozen or so, and bolt them together at the bottom. Put some pieces of thin rubber (rubber washers would work great) between them for spacing, and to allow you to be able to move them, yet keep them tight. If you can't find bass wood or Spruce, yard sticks would work as well. Spread the pieces out as far as you want the tail to extend, and glue some light fabric to it. Lengths of string spaced apart might work as well. You want something to attach the feathers too. I'd paint all of this blue, so that it blends in. To attach all of this to a belt, I would get a dowel that's at least 3/4" of an inch thick, and drill a hole through the side so that you can put a bolt through it. Run a bolt through all of the sticks and through the dowel, and put a nut on the end. Get it tight enough so that you can move the pieces, yet they stay where you put them. Next put some glue (epoxy or super glue) on the nut to keep it from loosening. Finally get a piece of metal, and drill a hole in each end. Now bent them up so that you can run a screw through each hole, and into the dowel. Again, get the screws tight enough to hold it's place yet still be able to move, and use some glue to keep them from backing out. Use some short bolts with nuts to attach all of this to a heavy leather belt. I would then glue some blue velvet or satin to the belt to make it more decorative.

I was wanting to do the same thing for Halloween. Have you worked on this idea for the tail at all? I am trying to figure out a way that I can raise and lower it by pulling on a string or something. Any ideas?