This is a fun and easy craft tutorial to make a quill pen and inkwell for a Hitty doll. You can use any kind of bird feather, as long as it is at least 2” long. You can buy them from craft stores or simply collect naturally shed feathers from birds in your area.
Materials:
Feathers, 2” long or larger
Small metal bead caps or round drum-shaped ceramic beads (about 8-12 mm high)
Scissors
One foam packing peanut
Many types of bead caps or round ceramic beads can work for the inkwells. Use whatever you have available, or purchase new beads from a craft store. I got mine from Hobby Lobby.
Take the feather that you want to use and hold the end between your thumb and forefinger. Pull the end of the feather along your thumb, exerting enough pressure to give the feather a slight curl. When you like the shape of the curl, cut off the top 2” of the feather.
Strip off about 1/4” of the feather barbs at the bottom of the quill. Check the overall width of the feather to see if it needs trimming. The feather quill will look best if it is no more than 1/2” wide. If your feather is too wide, you can trim off the edges of the barbs with scissors on both sides to the width you like. Cutting feathers can be messy! Carefully collect and throw away the extra pieces of feather, or else you will find them floating away with the slightest puff of air.
And now for the inkwells. If you are using a hollow bead cap, you can simply place the feather in the hole. Sometimes the hole will be a little too big, making the feather unstable. To fix this, you can break off a tiny piece of the styrofoam packing peanut and stuff it into the bottom of the bead cap. When you insert the feather, it will stick into the styrofoam. If you are using a round drum-shaped bead, place the feather into the hole at the center of the bead. You can also try any other types of beads that you like. This is a great way to recycle vintage jewelry. Have fun and be creative! Now your Hitty is ready to write her own memoirs.
