After several more hours of work, I’m almost done with the green scale feathers:
I’m a little miffed that the beauty of the feathers doesn’t show through. It gives you an idea of how it looks, but minus the excitement – in reality the feathers are beautifully iridescent green, not flat green-brown as they appear in the photo. I suppose something about the lens flattens the diffraction-grating-generated iridescence. (Peacock feathers, in case you didn’t know, are actually brown. What creates the illusion of color is a diffraction grating not unlike that in a python’s skin (which has rainbow iridescence if you look closely in bright light). If you look at a peacock feather through a polarizing filter, it looks brown, not multicolor.)
Minor commentary on physics aside, I’m very pleased with this piece so far. I believe it will be one of my most magnificent tutus yet. 🙂
