Hey, Chad, take your cue from thins that catch your eye and color combinations used on othe things. To me the point of a crest is to contrast the colour of the shaft. So if the shaft is stained a dark colour, you' d pick your crest from a light colour that compliments it. If the shaft is light in stain/colour, pick a crest that' s dark in colour. And to me, unless you' re splicing feathers, it just looks stupid to have a crest in different coloring than the feathers. The way I did my ramin shafts was staining the colonial cherry, painted them yellow and used yellow shield cuts on them. I was going to use a barred shield cut yellow for the cock feathers, but they didn' t have them when I was there for the feathers. That' s just the way I like to do things and what looks good to me. A tip I picked up from the guy I bought ramin shafts off of, instead of using paints, use another stain for the crest.

Brandan