A Craft for Your Inner Colonist ~ How to Make a Feather Quill Pen

Today, we're going to have some fun with your inner colonist as we learn to make a quill pen. 

As a kid, didn't you ever want to make a feather quill pen to use? I bet you did. I bet you took apart your Bic, found a big ol' feather somewhere, and stuffed the ink tube from the pen inside to write with. I know I did. If you somehow missed doing that, how about as an adult? Now, of course, you know that stuffing pen parts inside a feather is not authentic. You want a real nibbed quill and an ink bottle on your desk. Seriously, I've found myself researching feather pens on Amazon. I have this one with interchangeable nibs (for style) on my wishlist:

Making Your Own

If you're feeling crafty, though, here's how to make a real feather quill pen. First, you need a likely feather. If you don't have access to someone's farm where you can get a pretty chicken or goose feather,  or you don't have any turkeys roaming around dropping the occasional feather, you can buy some nice turkey feathers online or in a craft store. Note how wing feathers curve. Whether or not you're left or right handed, the way they curve will feel better in one hand or the other. Back in the day, right-handed folks generally chose feathers from the left wing, and vice-versa for left-handed writers. They chose feathers from a bird's right wing. (Note: if you're going to chase down Granny's pet goose to nab a feather, keep this left-hand-right-wing, or right-hand-left-wing info in mind. Haha!)

Once you have your chosen feather, you need to prep it a bit. First clip off any of those soft, fluffy little feathers near the tip, and trim off any of the lower feathers that might get in the way of your holding the shaft. After that, it's time to strip the membrane. This part isn't 100% necessary, but it makes for a nicer "barrel". Just take a paring knife, and scrape the shaft along the barrel. You'll see the membrane coming off.

Good. Now it's time to cut the point on the end. You'll want to trim it at a nice angle, and make sure that you're cutting in the direction you want to be able to hold the quill to write most comfortably. Inside the end of the barrel is the "quick", kind of a like a plug. You'll need to remove that. Then you'll make a second cut to create the point. If you have trouble picturing this, think of the shape of tip on a fountain pen. If you want to make broader strokes, say for calligraphy, then you'll blunt the end a bit squarer. 

You have one more cut to make. After you've fashioned the tip, cut a slit in the middle of it so that the ink can run properly. Again, picture that fountain pen nib.

And that's it! You're ready to write. You'll need ink of course. You can order some, or you can squash up a few berries like some of those colonists would have had to do. I have a character doing that in my WIP, a sequel to Mist O'er the Voyageur. If you live in an area where you have black walnuts, those work good too.

Writing with Your Quill

Dip the tip of your quill in the ink of your choice, and give it a gentle tap to avoid drips. Make slow, easy strokes as you write, realizing that you'll have to re-load your quill every few words. Imagine how long it took Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Tom Jefferson, and so many of our other founding fathers to pen their lengthy documents! And if you lived in the mountains of North Carolina, there was only a small likelihood that you knew how to write at all. You would probably be just as mesmerized watching someone with that skill as we would be today--watching them write with a quill pen.

Send me a picture if you do this!

In the meantime...what are you reading? I hope you'll add my newly re-released, popular Empire in Pine series to your TBR, Goodreads, and BookBub lists. 

The Green Veil ~ The Red Fury ~ The Black Rose

by Naomi Musch

Here's to History,

Naomi

https://naomimusch.com/

P.S. As I completed this post, I discovered that this topic has been discussed before, in 2012, here on the CQ blog. If you'd like to see some step-by-step pictures and results from another crafty perspective, you can find that post here: Making Pens from Quills

Historical Artwork that Inspired Story

Like many writers, when I begin to plot and plan a novel, one of my favorite activities is to collect photo inspiration for the story. Sometimes this comes after the story is written, but often there are items, places, and people that have inspired settings or characters in the book, and I like to have an image of them.

One of those inspirations for my new release Mist O'er the Voyageur was the fascinating artwork of several artists of history.

• Frances Anne Hopkins 

Mrs. Hopkins lived from 1838-1919. She was the wife of a fur trader - the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) official Edward Hopkins. One of her early paintings, Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior, was selected by the Royal Academy for exhibition in London while she was a young wife and mother in Montreal in 1869. That painting helped to inspire the title for my book Mist O'er the Voyageur:

One of her most famous paintings also fed my imagination, and I am fortunate to have a print of this 1889 classic called Shooting the Rapids:

Mrs. Hopkins lived a very interesting life, and if you'd like to learn more about her, I recommend reading this post: http://www.hbcheritage.ca/people/women/frances-anne-hopkins

• Arthur Heming 

Mr. Heming was  both a novelist and a painter from Canada who didn't merely dream up his visual depictions in his tales or paintings, but he also spent a great deal of time in the wilderness and was able to depict the harsh life, danger, and skills of the voyageurs from personal experiences. His work entitled Canadian Express shows the challenges the voyageurs faced as the freight haulers to and from the wilderness forts:

This one depicts the voyageurs taking a rest, referred to as "a pipe" and is aptly titled Taking a Pipe:

• Michael Gnatek
• Paul Calle

Michael Gnatek passed away in 2006, but not before accumulating a fabulous gallery of historical military art from various periods. I love his painting of a mountain man wearing a Hudson's Bay blanket capote. His work reminds me of another contemporary artist, Paul Calle, whose paintings are so details, right down to the weathered facial lines in mountain men and trappers. I am blessed to have two of Paul Calle's prints on my living room walls.  Do to copyright, I won't post the images, but I hope you'll check out the links:

 MOUNTAIN MAN by Michael Gnatek

The two Paul Calle prints on my wall. Here they are on Pinterest:

THROUGH THE TALL GRASS by Paul Calle

END OF A LONG DAY by Paul Calle

• Margaret Killarney

Another contemporary artist, Margaret Killarney, another oil artist from Ontario, draws you into her paintings of the northern Lake Superior shoreline the way a stained-glass window beckons you into glorious prisms of light. Her work has even been featured on the cover of Lake Superior Magazine. Check out the beautiful imagery on her site:

Margaret Killarney 

• Original Photographs of the Past by Various Historical Photographers

Though I can't share the actual photos which belong to the Minnesota Historical Society, please take a look at this piece written by Paul Peter Buffalo, as he chronicles his historical heritage along with a number of photos depicting native individuals and families (mostly Chippewa) along with their lodgings, handiwork, and lifestyle from long ago:

WINTER WOOD AND WIIGWAAMS by Paul Peter Buffalo

These are just a few of the artists that contributed imagery to my imagination as I penned Mist O'er the Voyageur. I must also say that when I first saw the cover for Mist, I let out a squeal of glee. I cannot overlook the talent of graphic artists who can compose the work of photographers and other artists into such beautiful book covers able also to capture our literary imaginations.

I hope you enjoyed taking in  some of this fabulous artwork. If you'd like to see more, follow my Pinterest board: Amazing Art, and also the boards for my individual book titles. Hmm...why not just follow them all? ;)

Here's to every artist out there!
Naomi