CleverPlumage farm feather haul
Sunday I went out with my folks to a farm in Taylorsville Georgia to collect feathers for crafting. This is an annual fall trip for me and I was excited to see what little treasures we’d find. We wander around the roaming areas of the birds with giant plastic bags gathering feathers till the golden Georgian sun began to set.
The birds are free range and include ducks, guineas, turkeys, a variety of chickens and roosters, and about 6 male and 3 female peacocks. Which of course are my favorite to find.
Today I thought I’d share a little of the behind the scenes action as to how I prepare the feathers after I’ve collected them. It’s one of those curiosities that always comes up for customers at craft fairs and I enjoy talking about my process so what better place than the blog!
The first step is to wander aimlessly around a farm looking for feathers on the ground while trying not to disturb the nesting areas of the birds. After which I clean and preen the feathers to make sure they are up to par for my Etsy shop. I soak the feathers in a bucket of water with a cup of vinegar for about 10 minutes and swirl them around to loosen any leaves or red mud, which is my nemesis. I pick out most of the leaves during this step as well.
Then I suds those bad boys up with a couple of squeezes of Dr. Bronner’s Castile Tea Tree Oil soap, swirl and dunk them as if I was washing delicates, I let them sit a little longer to make sure all the mud is off, drain them off to get them ready to move into a clean rinse bucket that has a little hydrogen peroxide added (sometimes spray hydrogen peroxide directly on the feathers before dipping them into the water, but this time I just tried to do this step in the shade, maybe it was more piece of mind). I take them two by two, inspecting each one, and suds them up one final time before dunking them into the clean peroxide bucket that I let fill up as I move over the feathers.
After I’ve been through the whole bucket I lay them out on a screen in the sun to dry, which only takes about 10 to 15 minutes. I do this twice per bucket.
The whole process takes about 50 minutes per bucket load and the bag you see in the first picture took me two bucket loads to clean up nice and bright.
Finally, I am left with beautiful clean feathers ready for crafting into fun head pieces and jewelry. I pretty much love my job. This is the worst part about it.
