Waterproofing Feathers Experiment 2

BIG Thanks to CB who tested out the Fletch Dry Waterproof Powder for feathers on a headpiece this weekend, sharing the results and her photos below:


FLETCH DRY EXPERIMENT

After a successful attempt at waterproofing individual feathers, I decided to do an actual headpiece, so here are some pics of my attempt:

1. Here are my materials—headpiece, plastic bag large enough to hold headpiece and seal, Fletch-Dry:



2. This is the product I used:



3. And this is the amount I started off with (remember this is a little less than a full bottle because I'd used some for my first experiment):


4. This gives an idea of the amount I used. I sprinkled some powder in the corner of the bag, I placed the headpiece into the bag, then I sprinkled some of the powder directly over the feathers, just so I could get a better idea of how much coverage I could get with the amount of powder put in the bag:



5. This is what the feathers looked like after shaking the bag to evenly distribute the powder. See how the feathers look dusty? That shakes off quickly enough, however.


6. Okay, only a few minutes later, I have the headpiece ready for "rain." Notice that the colour is back to normal after having shaken off the excess powder.




7. Now, check out how cool the water beads up and rolls off the feathers:



8. These pics are after about a minute of being placed under the water stream. See how I changed the flow from a sprinkle to a constant stream, just to test the extent of the waterproofing.





9. So, here are the feathers as they're drying. You notice that they're a bit on the spiky side. I refused to blow dry them, as most of us won't have access to a dryer on the road.


10. Now, after the feathers were completely dried, they fluffed up okay. You could tell that they'd gotten wet, but still looked nice. One thing I'd noticed was that where the water beads remained (that I'd intentionally not dried off), there was some discolouration or marks that look like burn/scorch marks. Just remember to wipe off the excess water from your feathers and you should be fine.


11. Okay, so here's the headpiece after the experiment:



Looks pretty good for a post-rain headpiece, no?

Blogger Monique had enquired whether I'd rubbed some extra powder into the barbules of the feathers. I didn't want to do this because I don't like how the powder feels on my hands, and if as I jump up all day all that excess powder begins to fall and land on my body, that might cause a skin irritation. Of course, if you make sure to shake all the excess off, I don't see why you can't perform that extra measure of protection.

Good luck and hope these pics help!