Ok so I promised this guide to a lot of people by the end of this you will be able to make a pretty sweet feather mohawk.

 

Much like the giant ones pictured above.

Items you need

• Large 14x17inch paper | Strathmore 300 Series Tracing Paper Pad 14 in. x 17 in.
• Pencil | Wood Pencils No.2 10/Pkg-Yellow
• A long piece of string
• Tape Measure or Ruler
• Buckram – 1-2 yards 60″ wide | Buckram – Stabilizer – White 60″
• Scissors
• Straight Pins | Extra Fine Glass Head Pins , 250 Count
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue | Hot Glue Gun
• Or Plumbers Glue | Plumbers Goop
• Feathers (ill link to the places I use below)
• Clothespins | Wood Clothespins

Step 1

Ok first thing’s first take your head and lay it on the large 14×17 paper, and trace from your front hairline (forehead) to the back of your head. This will create the base arch of your mohawk.

Once you have that done take a ruler and at a 90ish degree angle start marking 3 inches straight out from that line above, And an inch below it. I mark it about every inch or so. Once you have all your dots play connect the dots it should look something like the photo above. The part above your scalp line is the mohawk backing and the part below will be used to attach it to the base we will create next.

Step 2

Now that you have your head all traced out and your mohawk form traced made, we need to make a base to attach it to. Take your long piece of string and lay it across the line you just drew using your head. Once you have it take it and measure it. This gives you the length you need to make the base.

Now take the length you just got from your string and draw a straight line on the paper (use the back side of the large paper. From the “front” it won’t matter what side you choose, measure 3 inches back then 2 1/2 inches out and place a dot on both sides. From the “back” measure 2 1/2 inches in and 2 1/2 inches out and place dots on both sides. Once you have this just connect the dots like the photos above.

_sidenote: none of this has to be exact you will want a decent base to attach your mohawk to and you want it semi tall so you can save money on feathers but we have done many in different sizes and shapes this is just a general template that works for most people

Step 3

Now take all those Templates you just made and trace them out on the Buckram. The Mohawk part you need to trace twice. And then a third time, but Ill outline that later.

Step 4

Ok now take that top arch of the mohawk and trace it two more times, the part without the tabs.

Cut this all out and this is what we have.

Now the fun begins.

Step 5 or how I stab myself lots.

Take the base we created in step 2 and place it on something or someone, I didn’t include that you may need Styrofoam Head Because Dawn and I did our first two using her head. You really want to place it on yourself so you can get the proper curvature of your scull. But It works pretty good if your even semi close, lots of flexibility here. Ok so place it on someone’s head and start folding the sides and pinning the folds.

Little folds and more of them make it curve better and fit better.

Don’t worry if its not perfect.

Ok good work.

Step 6

Now take the pins out and Hot Glue it. Or use Plumbers Goop and clothespins to hold it.

_sidenote 2: I included both ways because each has its upside and downside, the Plumbers glue will take longer to set but it seems like it will last way longer this is what I used to make my first mohawk and that thing I’m sure will last longer then the feathers. The hot glue on the other hand is super fast and if you just want to get this thing done use that. You can also sew it or staple it. Its really up to you. But on the base hot glue is probably totally fine, as it will be reinforced in the next step anyway.

Step 7

Take the top part of the mohawk and cut the bottom section into tabs. I kinda forgot to take photos of the tab creation… Listen we have a lot of events, parties, secondlines, and parades to attend its a lot of work.

Glue (use your preferred method of gluing) it to the base, The width depends on you. I like to glue it about an inch from the side, and cut the excess off later. I keep the extra side stuff so when I’m working with it on the Styrofoam Head its more stable.

Step 8

Ok now that the base is all set its time to get some feathers. I use the following two shops on eBay (I know this is blasphemous because we live in New Orleans and we have Jefferson Variety) But Ill say this. When your trying to find feathers near or around Mardi Gras, the Indians here buy them all. And I mean all of them. You may find some leftovers, aka the colors nobody wants, but I want what I want.

Stores

Cynthia’s Merchandise I buy most of my tall feathers from here.

The Fabulous Feather Store I buy just about all the other feathers from here.

Feathers

You will need the Following

• 25-100 10-16″ feathers, (I get these from Cynthia’s Merch here)
• 100ish 5-7″ feathers, (I get most of the solid color ones from Fabulous Feather here and here, my darker two toned ones from Cynthia’s here)
• 100-200 3-5″ feathers, (I use Fab feathers for these here).

Ok now a word about the feathers, its your mohawk this is just an idea, look through those stores and pick whatever you want but its the general size that matters. The long ones will go on the top medium in the middle and short ones on the bottom. My counts are also pretty high you can do a full mohawk with 20-40 tall 50-60 medium and 100 small. But if you want it to look organic and multi layered you need multi colors at almost each level. I buy the majority in one color and then a pack of something I think will highlight the color I just purchased.

Ok now that you have all your feathers, Start placing the Large ones in top of the form like below using ample amounts of whatever glue you like. The plumbers glue allows you time to set them how you want but you will need a lot of patients and a lot of clothespins. Hot glue on the other hand is super fast but you will burn the crap out of yourself a couple times.

Step 9

Once your first layer is dry, take that second set to pieces we made for the sides and place it on the form like below. You may need to cut it a little to make it work but it should be pretty close. Glue the bottom of that and then place your second layer (the medium size) of feathers between the buckram and glue away.

Step 10

Now since we kinda had a little too much fun I forgot to take photos of the rest. I’m going to substitute some of the photos I would have taken for what I have.

The bottom is simple take the shortest feathers and glue them at the base of the mohawk form. You want to make sure that they cover up the buckram you used to attach the medium feathers.

Step 11

Ok this is the final step, take the base and cut it to be a little pointier in the front and pointy in the back. Cut off all the excess tab material and make it as thin or as wide as you want. Once you have this all cut off you will need one last thing, something to cover the base. I’m going to leave photos below of what we used on different mohawks so you have an idea. Once again just use your favorite gluing method and glue something to the base and cover the bottom of the shortest feathers.

I used rubber on mine.

We used some fancy cloth on Dawn’s as well as skulls and studs.

On Caroline’s we used some silver ribbon painted gold.

I know the serious instruction peters off at the end here but once you have the top layers I think you have a good idea how its gonna go. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Once completed you should look pretty close to this awesome.

Ooh yea.. To attach it to your head you can use bobby pins, the giant large ones work best, and if you make a couple little cuts in the base of the mohawk it seems to work pretty good. I personally just pull some hair out and fold it over the edge and pin that as that seems to stay on the best. But if you make the base properly it will stay on pretty good with nothing the bobby pins just hold it tight so you can rock harder.