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If I may offer a suggestion for bustles, I use bamboo skewers as my extensions. What I do is I cut a small portion off the tip of the quill; just big enough to get the skewer in, maybe slightly bigger. Put glue into the quill of the feather; enough until it no longer seaps down. Also, add glue onto the tip end of the skewer and insert. Let the adhesive do its job and set as the bottle directs you too. Cut some leather strips, or you may want to use other things ling bobbin pins, and glue them onto your skewer and wrap with sinew for extra support. This is how you will hold all your feathers together. Then, slide a straw over the skewer and onto the quill. How far you slide it onto the quill is your choice but be sure to cut enough off of the straw at the end where it is overlapping the leather stip, or whatever you use, and add glue and sinew in some fashion to add extra support that it will not go anywhere. Also, I like to put glue on the quills or inside the tips of the straw before slidding it on to strengthen my supports but the bottom end becomes tricky. After you've done all your feathers, you'll want to wrap them, esp. considering you have straws with different colors.
As little tid bits, I definitely recommend laying your feathers out and put them in order before beginning to mess with them so that you will have your idea of what you want. As far as the glue, some people prefer wood glue. Personally, I like the stuff called Bond 557. Don't quote me on the number right now. I'll find out what it is, I just use it!:Chatter Nothing against wood glue, I have used it in the paste and it holds up well too. When putting glue in the quill, you may want to use a hot pin with some diameter to pierce the quill so that the air can get to flowing and the glue as well. Be careful not to pierce it too close to the feather. You don't want to get glue on the feather itself.
Now, I want to caution you. There are at least two different sizes of skewers that I have found. If you can find the package that contains both the regular size and the jumbo size skewers at Wal-Mart for a buck fifty, get 'em. Some feathers are bigger than others. This way, with a little help from the straws, you can accommodate just about any feather.
I hope this helps. There is more I would like to say. But I've gotta run now. Feel free to PM me in the future if you'd like.
LSS
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