Biata feathers

Ithra

Newbie
i just had a few simple questions about biatas feathers.

1: say you give your character a feather color that has multible traits that go with it like for example Gray: neutrality/shy/passive/kind. can you choose to only have some of those traits and not all?

2:IG is it well known to characters of other races what these colors mean? (i'd assume Biata would know of course)

3: and while i'm at it what are some good ways to put feathers in your hair? i have mid length hair that goes down to my shoulders in the back with more a mop headed length hair in the front. and when i make a biata i plan to have my hair down (instead of a ponytail as i usally do) since this character will be mostly roleplay only. (and it will be another thing to make him look different from the other characters i plan to make)

edit: oh and now that i think of it anyone have any pictures or ideas on how to do a feathered claw? i thought that if i'm gonna play a roleplay biata anyway i might as well!
 
Ithra said:
3: and while i'm at it what are some good ways to put feathers in your hair? i have mid length hair that goes down to my shoulders in the back with more a mop headed length hair in the front. and when i make a biata i plan to have my hair down (instead of a ponytail as i usally do) since this character will be mostly roleplay only. (and it will be another thing to make him look different from the other characters i plan to make)

The wide flat hair clips work well for anything wide and flat. I used to do a hackle pad on the left side of my head with one that I stitched onto the back of it.

Alligator clips work really well for crest feathers or draped feathers. Again, what I used to use.
 
1. This depends on your character. Most biata try to have at least two of the three traits per feather color.
Keep in mind you can have multiple colored feathers, usually no more than three. This gives your character a layer of personality.

2. This depends as well. Most biata know the meaning of the colors. There may be a few non-biata who know due to being around biata enough.

As for the clawed glove, I use a plain black glove from a costume store and hot glued feathers on it to give it a layered look.

Feel free to ask me any other questions as I play a biata as my primary character.
 
Ithra said:
edit: oh and now that i think of it anyone have any pictures or ideas on how to do a feathered claw? i thought that if i'm gonna play a roleplay biata anyway i might as well!

Due to living in wet western washington* when I was playing my biata, what I did was take an opera glove, cut the finger tips and thumb off and stitch them to keep them from running, then painted on feathers with a fabric marker. I'd glue empire length nails onto my fingernails and then trim them to claw-points and paint them the same color as the main feathers.

*Feathers not only don't smell good when wet, but without the natural oils a bird produces, stay wet longer. They ended up being more of a health hazard for me (I'd leave every event with a cold until I went painted.)
 
Interesting Idea.

I have seen biata who are allergic to feathers and/or spirit gum pain feather eyebrows.
 
kitsune85 said:
Interesting Idea.

I have seen biata who are allergic to feathers and/or spirit gum pain feather eyebrows.

I always used latex for my eyebrows. I found that spirit gum had a tendency to "sweat" down into my eyes. Any latex I got in my actual eyebrows rubbed out pretty easily with a minimum of hair loss.
 
I've heard of actually doing a latex 'base' on wax paper, and then attaching the feathers to that, and then liquid latexing that to your skin. Haven't tried it personally, but from what I've heard it works very well. (this would be eyebrow based I believe). Hair would be hair clips of various fashions, once again starting with some sort of a 'base' to attach the feathers to..

Opera gloves, friendly plastic for claws are also other options I've heard clawwise.

-Ali
 
I always did my eyebrows with a junky base feather that I layered the rest on. In fact... I just wrote this up for someone in seattle so:


Sarah said:
The best way I found to do eyebrows is to take a wider, perhaps not as nice feather out of your pile. Bend it on the shaft a whole bunch, just basically curl it over your nail. Apply liquid latex to your face above your eyebrow, then place this feather there. Let it set up. This is your base feather, the one you're going to lair all the other ones on top of.

Next, take your decorative feathers. Again bend them along the shaft, just where they're going to attach. Breaking the shaft like this lets the feathers shape themselves better to your face, and ends up providing a more realistic movement when they're on. Use liquid latex and lair the feathers on until you have the look you desire. Let this all set and dry before pulling it off.

I personally kept the swept around the face look, You can go for a straight out look, for a busy look, for a sleek look. It all depends on what you find for feathers and how you want it all to look.

Once it's all set and dry, carefully peel it off from the bridge of your nose out. You will now have a set of feathers that you can keep reusing with either spirit gum or liquid latex. I stuck with latex since I found that spirit gum had a tendency to melt and run down into my eyes. These prosthetics will last you for a good year or more with proper care.
 
Basically I hot glued my feathers together (3 colors) in a tier pattern.

Then I use liquid adhesive to attach the eyebrows.

The only downside is trying to wash the excess adhesive out of the eyebrows.
 
kitsune85 said:
Basically I hot glued my feathers together (3 colors) in a tier pattern.

Then I use liquid adhesive to attach the eyebrows.

The only downside is trying to wash the excess adhesive out of the eyebrows.

If you're not allergic to latex, you might try that instead. It rubs out pretty easy without taking a lot of hair with it.
 
So questions...

1) Can a person draw their feathers on instead of applying real feathers?
2) Does a person playing a Biata have to literally play their color? What if I am playing a flighty, super conversational, awesomely social biata that is wearing somber, "leave me alone" colors? Will this person be violating the rules of Biata?

Paul Iverson
 
p.richard said:
So questions...

1) Can a person draw their feathers on instead of applying real feathers?
2) Does a person playing a Biata have to literally play their color? What if I am playing a flighty, super conversational, awesomely social biata that is wearing somber, "leave me alone" colors? Will this person be violating the rules of Biata?

Paul Iverson

I've only had it ever be acceptable to paint on my feathers back when I was playing my biata when it was rather extenuating circumstances. By that, I mean my car broke down in Oregon, on the way to an event in Seattle, and I forgot to move my feathers to the rental. I was allowed to paint them on for that event.

You should play the colors of your feathers. What you wear doesn't have to match the color of your feathers, but I've found the better biata players match their moods not only to their native plumage, but their temporary plumage (read clothes) as well.

No worries, Diera's been gone for a few years now. :twisted:
 
p.richard said:
So questions...

1) Can a person draw their feathers on instead of applying real feathers?
2) Does a person playing a Biata have to literally play their color? What if I am playing a flighty, super conversational, awesomely social biata that is wearing somber, "leave me alone" colors? Will this person be violating the rules of Biata?

Paul Iverson

1) their may be rare cases where its allowed like the one guy mentioned but if your gonna PC as a biata you shouldn't paint them on, its lazy and you wouldn't gain much respect from others.

2) well the colors you choose would be a big part of who you are i'd think but not the only part of your personality.
 
does anyone have any pictures of a claw? i would love to see how they look IG.

is there anything i could use besides real feathers that would still look like feathers? because i live in oregon so they would be getting wet often, but i don't want to just paint them on, i think what i'd like to do is have 2 claws that go from the hand up to just before the elbow. wait can you have 2 claws?
 
Ithra said:
does anyone have any pictures of a claw? i would love to see how they look IG.

is there anything i could use besides real feathers that would still look like feathers? because i live in oregon so they would be getting wet often, but i don't want to just paint them on, i think what i'd like to do is have 2 claws that go from the hand up to just before the elbow. wait can you have 2 claws?

You can only have one as a biata.

In all the time I played Diera back up in the PNW, I never found something that looked like feathers that wasn't either feathers or likely to absorb water exactly like bleached and dyed feathers.

You could hypothetically get boa yarn and play with that. Or simple quilters cotton and try cutting feather-like shapes out of it (wash it first, or it'll just bleed everywhere in the first drizzle.)

Like I said, the best solution I found was to grab the fabric markers and go to town with them.
 
Ithra said:
does anyone have any pictures of a claw? i would love to see how they look IG.

is there anything i could use besides real feathers that would still look like feathers? because i live in oregon so they would be getting wet often, but i don't want to just paint them on, i think what i'd like to do is have 2 claws that go from the hand up to just before the elbow. wait can you have 2 claws?

try an archery dept, the feathers for arrows are mostly plastic but some are very realistic, colorful, but can get expensive as they tend to be sold in packs of 12+.

http://www.basspro.com/Gateway-Feathers ... 65/-926242
 
For those who don't live in the rainy states and want actual feathers, I have a customized feather "gauntlet" from this site.

http://www.artofwings.com/feather_gauntlets.htm

They are secured onto a firm hackle pad with a velcro strap that you can place on top of a clawed glove. I made my clawed glove from opera gloves and applied black friendly plastic directly to the finger tips. It melted slightly into the fabric and I've had no issues with claws getting loose. I am a big fan of the velcro strap on the feathered pad as it allows for free motion and adjustability. She will also make them with any colors you desire, or at least she did when I ordered mine about 2 years ago.
 
Those are really awesome.
 
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