Hi all. Recently I bought some feathers of different types in order to see if a feather risha is a practical idea in this day and age; I knew others
had had some success with it using ostrich but even they had said it was a personal style thing. My question is this: in researching I find that there
is a way to actually prepare a risha from the raw feather but the only problem is everything is in pictures. As a blind person pictures would be
useless so I'm wondering if someone would kindly instruct me textually in what to do.fernandraynaud - 6-23-2010 at 09:53 PM
Well, let me see, you hold the bird this way, see, with the head pointed like that, and you yank the tail feathers with one of these .... never mind.
Get yourself a nice plastic reesha, Ameer!
(sorry I would not resist!)Aymara - 6-23-2010 at 10:13 PM
Hi Ameer,
the historical feather risha preparation is much more complex than what I did. I just sanded the top of the quill, so that it became perfectly round
and then I oiled it a bit ... that's all. BTW ... I used turkey wing feathers and was happy with them. I bought a bunch of them in a crafts supply
shop for 2 Euros. In my experience such a feather lasts a few weeks, when playing daily.
The historical feather risha is different. Here the top of the quill is removed (around a third of the whole feather), because it is hollow and
doesn't last long. I don't remember the details, but if you're interested ... someone explained it some time ago in detail in another thread ... just
search for feather But before that, I would recommend using my method, which will
show you, if you like playing with a feather, if you like the feel and the sound.
Regarding the question, if it's worth trying ... yes, it is. In my opinion a feather risha feels very nice in my hand and regarding the sound, only
one type of risha is as good or even a bit better: a horn risha, which sounds great and lasts very long.
A last word to all who want to try a feather: Please don't do any birds any harm, it's no problem to buy feathers cheap.
PS: Ostrich feathers are too big and have a too thick quill.fernandraynaud - 6-24-2010 at 12:19 AM
Birds are plentiful, and cheap. They don't need all those feathers anyway. Do humans have feathers? No. And we build beautiful concrete housing, and
start wars, and all that advanced stuff, whereas birds, well, what do birds do?
Ostrich feathers make nice hood ornaments, but penguins are easier to catch. All you need to do is set out an alabaster egg in the snow, put up a
"hatch this" sign, and males will run up and stay there like idiots until the female comes home, which is very late, certainly long enough to grab
some feathers. Hold on tight and then make a very loud noise, so the penguin jerks and does all the work.
Dodo bird feathers make the best reeshas. Soak the whole dodo in petroleum first, like an oil spill is good, much easier than working with a feather.
Only use the best feather and discard the rest. Don't be shy, plenty where that came from. A dodo feather will generally last a whole Taqsim, make
sure you have enough for the whole performance.
Not worth putting a lot of work into preparing the feather, just use it until it gets mooshy, and throw it away. Just be sure you have enough, it
never hurts to have a spare. A small island will generally supply enough dodo birds for an oud player's needs for an entire month. Have your henchmen
move on to the next island every 3 weeks and start the biggest and best dodo birds soaking.
All the bunny-huggers worries are for nothing. The traditional feather rishas have been made this way for thousands of years, yet obviously there is
no lack of birds.
But before that, I would recommend using my method, which will
show you, if you like playing with a feather, if you like the feel and the sound.