Molt time a very bittersweet time for me. My birds begin to look ragged and even slightly embarrassed. On the other hand it can be one of my favorite times because of all of the beautiful feathers that they leave for me. Who hasn’t seen a beautiful discarded feather (before it gets covered with mud…yeah, let’s call it mud) and brought it in after chores were done. Then one of a few things will happen to it… 1. You lay it on the counter or you desk and admire it for several days. Then inevitably it gets tossed because one or a handful of feathers isn’t enough to do anything with and you don’t want the clutter. 2. You stick it in a pencil holder, under a magnet on the fridge, in a flower pot…you get the idea. It’s an adornment to something in your home, but is easily out of sight out of mind. 3. You collect all of the feathers over a few seasons and have it squirreled away somewhere like a stash of pirates gold, but you no longer see them and enjoy them because they are in a bag or a fox somewhere waiting to become some future craft.
So my vision for this page is not only to give you some decorating ideas for using those gorgeous gifts from your flock, but more importantly I wanted to share my idea for displaying the feathers I collect. To the left you can see my Feather Keeper. It is where I place all of the donated feathers from my flock. The instructions below are specific to a centerpiece that I made, but the directions are easily altered to make one of these display pieces.
The first thing you will need is a container. It can be as plain or as fancy as you like. For my Feather Keeper, I chose a decorative flower pot. For my centerpiece I chose something larger. To the right you can see some of the other choices I assembled. You just need to find a container that you like and something that will hold a piece of floral foam. Keep in mind that the size of the container should be relatively proportional to the project. Don’t start off with a punch bowl size if you only have 5 feathers. Conversely, don’t start with a coffee cup if you already have enough feathers to tar and feather your least favorite in-law and bring in handfuls every day. There should be room to grow, but not so much that it looks like a palm tree on a desert island.
The next thing you will need is the floral foam.
Now for those of you that have no background in floral design, here’s a quick lesson.
There are 2 distinctly different types of foam used in flower arranging.
#1 is Wet Floral Foam. It is generally used for fresh flower arrangements. It is very absorbent and soft enough to easily press the delicate stems of most fresh flowers into. It dents readily and is easily conformed to the shape of the vessel you are putting it in. #2 is Dry Floral Foam. It is most often used for dry or silk flower arrangements. It does not absorb water and it is a rough course material designed for longevity and to hold the weight of the plastic stems without distortion so that the silk flowers stay put.
Both types of foam come in a variety of sizes and even shapes and are easily cut to whatever shape you need to fit your container. The only special equipment required is a sharp knife. Both types of foam are readily available at most craft stores and a lot of florists carry them for sale. But to make it simple, I provided a few links at the bottom of this page. The type of foam we will be using for these projects is Wet Floral Foam. The shafts of most feathers are strong and rigid, but some can be quite delicate, so I have found the Wet Floral Foam is the best suited for this even though we won’t be watering them.
You may also need tape. I use floral tape, but since we are not going to be getting this wet, almost any type of tape will work. The tape is necessary if you need to tape small blocks together into your desired shape and to secure the blocks inside the container if necessary. If the foam block fits tight enough, there is no need to tape, but if it wobbles around, take a few pieces of tape and tape over the rim of your container in a hashtag pattern to keep the block in place.
My Feather Keeper has one piece of foam in the hole of the planter. there was no need for tape. My centerpiece took 3 small blocks of foam, but fit tight enough I did not need to tape them either. I did however decide to cover the surface of the foam with sphagnum moss so that the foam was not visible.
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Then, Of course, you need feathers. We have a wide variety of birds here on the farm. We have Peacocks, Turkeys, Chickens, Pheasants, Ducks, Pigeons and Doves. I try to organize my Feather Keeper by adding larger feathers toward the back and smaller ones toward the front so that none of them are obscured and I can enjoy the beauty of all of them.
I decided to use the Peacock, Turkey and Pheasant feathers to make my centerpiece because of the shear size of them. I started off by arranging my peacock feathers in the center of the container. Not all Peacock tail feathers are the same length, they can vary in length by more than a foot. So I tried to make sure I got the taller ones in the very center and shorter ones around the outside of the grouping.
Then I arranged the Pheasant feathers around them and then added the Turkey feathers around the outside of the container. I still have plenty of room to add to my arrangement as my birds gift me with more mementos, but I was happy with the overall composition. On the other hand, because Big Bird is a white peacock, I wanted to add a little bit of color, so I found some silk flowers that I like and added a few accent touches.
And the final result…
And this is what it looks like without the light of the window behind it…
