Peacock Feather Jewelry

Peacocks are beautiful creatures, the male with it’s blue and green tail feathers spread wide.  When I was little, grama and grampa had a neighbor across the road who kept peacocks (and peahens).  One of my favorite memories was setting at a window watching the birds, when they came over to eat my grama’s flowers visit.  More often than not, those peacocks left a feather or two in return for the hospitality, and grama always made whoever was visiting go out and collect those feathers.

Grama kept the feathers in an old crock in a corner of the living room.  Many of you know that my grandmother passed away this spring, and so this was one of the things that was special to me, even if it didn’t have a lot of monetary value.  I was able to get the feathers from grama’s house and am currently working on turning those feathers into jewelry.  My goal is to be able to have a piece for my mom, my aunt and all the grandchildren (and great-grandchildren).

The feathers have been living in my car for almost a month.  I’d been avoiding bringing them inside until I could start working on them.  Partially because I knew that Mouse, my cat, would love to play with them, but also because I’m still having a hard time with the idea of “destroying” something that grama loved so much.  I finally decided that making the feathers into jewelry, that the family can enjoy, and know was made with something that belonged to grama is not the same as destroying them.

I brought the feathers in tonight, and started working on making some pieces.  Needless to say, Mouse was thrilled, until I locked her inside her transport case, that is.  Then she was just mad, but she survived – and I was able to make the first 3 pieces.  I’ll need to make at least 10 more.  It’s a good thing grama had so many of the feathers.

This post linked to: Make It Wear It at the Train to Crazy