natural histories: feathers

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"Her dark fingers worked nimbly with the innate accuracy that can only be achieved by doing the same highly skilled task over and over. Or perhaps it was cultural knowledge and her hands simply knew what to do. Beside her lay a pile of soft and wide contour feathers. A closer inspection of the heap would have also revealed a multitude of earth tones: bronze, gold, amber, rust, umber, copper, terra cotta; colors that looked good against the Native American’s burnt sienna skin.

Using strands of tree bark, she lashed the lower shaft of each feather—known as the calamus—to a network of plant fibers, an interwoven foundation that in itself took hours to weave…In the end, she stood up and wrapped her creation around her shoulders checking its length. She was pleased. "

Excerpt from Natural Histories published by the University of Tennessee Press

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