The task at hand was to design a streamer that had some significance with respect to our children.

This was my approach....

Information Gathering:

I first asked ‘my three girls’ (Allison - 9 yrs., Haley - 6, and Lauren - 3) what their favorite colors were. Their responses - purple, pink and blue, respectively. "Perfect for a ‘smeltish’ flair", I thought. I then looked up their birthstones. They are opal, pearl and emerald.

Creation Process:

Armed with that information, I applied it to my streamer design. Starting with the body, I used some pearlescent mylar tubing with a white floss underbody to represent both the opal and pearl birthstones. A peacock sword tail would take care of the emerald. Leaning toward a smelt look, I added a white bucktail belly (which can also signify white pearl) and a red hackle throat. On to the wing...

Using marabou for the pinkand purple seemed 'girlish' to me - the purple on top of the pink. I needed to include the youngest one's favorite color - blue. This child is just a bit less girlish, and a tad tougher, than the other two. That meant hackle, as opposed to the soft & fluffy marabou. Light blue saddles were added over the marabou to 'shroud' it, in effect. I then added peacock herl topping, again in the ‘smelt tradition’ (also having emerald tones). Lastly, I slapped on a silver pheasant & jungle cock shoulder/cheek assembly (bowing to tradition) and finished off the head. And there you have it!

By Chris Del Plato  (Jan.’99)