Adhesive Birdie

Who doesn't need to make a badminton birdie out of adhesive products?

That's right, the answer is pretty much everybody...

But that's the great thing about humans! We do a lot of stuff, not out of necessity but because we can!

And that's exactly why I made this adhesive birdie!

Because...Why not!

And now you can too!

• Hot glue- I used around 3 thin glue sticks
• Lighter-weight tape- I used blue painter tape
• Ping pong ball
• Pencil or paint brush (optional)

Cover one half of the ping pong ball with hot glue.

Once the glue has cooled to the point where it won't stick to your fingers when you touch it, roll the glue side around on a hard surface to flatten it a little more.

Let cool completely.

To remove from the glue from the ping pong ball, poke at the edge with a pencil or paintbrush handle. Use the peeled up part to slowly work the glue off the ping pong ball, this may end up flipping the glue inside out in the process.

Once off the ping pong ball, use the glue gun to carefully fill in any holes and flatten out the opening.

Set aside.

To make the feathers you will need to make a sheet of tape paper. To do this lay out one piece of tape about 11" long. Tear off another and overlay it on the first, overlapping half of the pieces with sticky sides together. Continue this process until the tape sheet is roughly 5" tall, at that point fold over the remaining edges to cover the sticky strips.

Once the tape sheet is together, sketch out the feather shapes, they should fit almost puzzle pieces together. With a short stem opening into a wider paddle shape about half way up, then coming to a point at the top. This is just my suggested shape, combining ease of drawing with pictures of real badminton birdies. You can make them as thick or thin as you want but your goal is around 13-14 feathers.

Cut all out.

To add some stability to the stems, fold them down the middle. Add a line of glue down the inside of the folded stems. To help the tape stem and glue stick better let the glue cool so it is not still hot but not yet cold and squish together to close the stem around the glue line.

More hot glue!

Measure the circumference of your glue ball from step 1.

Lay out your feathers, spaced to meet the above mentioned length while keeping even spacing.

On a flat, heat resistant surface-I used a table but if you don't think the glue will peel off nicely lay down some parchment paper or use a smooth plastic cutting board- connect all the feather stems with a line of hot glue. This may be easier to only connect a few at a time, alternating adding on to each side.

Once connected, peel off the table and flip over. Fill in any unglued spots along your line.

Fan out feathers to create a circle and glue ends together.

Stand feathers on end and put ends into the glue ball. Glue the feather-glue-ring to the rim of the glue ball.

Mooooooore hot glue!

We are going to two web-lines between the feathers.

To do this, line the glue ball with the edge of your flat surface so your feather stems lay flat on the table.

Use your glue gun to string another line between all the stems about a third of the way between the glue ball lip and where the stems widen. This works best working one or two at a time, letting the glue dry, peeling it up, and rotating the birdie. Once connected fill in gaps on the outer side as needed.

Repeat process another third of the way up the stems.

If after all this your feathers look a little sad, fluff a little by bending them outwards where the stems start to widen.

That's all there is to it! Now you have an adhesive badminton birdie. You could scale this process accordingly to create a comically large or tiny birdie, use it as a hat, put it on your cat, depending on your glue strength play badminton...the possibilities are endless!