Feathers

Hey, I was wondering, does anybody know of any fun or creative projects or keepsakes you can make with your birds' feathers? (After the molted them, of course, DON'T PULL THEM OUT)

I already have one feather from S'mores and Bartleby laminated and it sits in my wallet. But I want to make something that I can show off more, without having to take my wallet.

I know exactly how you feel; your beautiful, perfect little birdies molted these feathers-- you can't just let them sit on the floor.

Back when I had more time, I used to make headbands with feather adornments. I would often lay the feathers to look like flower petals, glue them together with a fancy button or rhinestone in the center, and sew or glue it onto a headband. The outcome was actually very nice. It ends up looking much like this: http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.169659046.jpg
Imagine that, only with cute little polka-dotted zebra finch tail feathers.

But you're a boy, so I'm sure you'd like a different way of using them.

I don't have any suggestions for you, just thought I'd share my advice for any of the ladies on here with the same question. I hope someone comes along and helps you with that!

For the house, you might think of making dream catchers and hanging them around the house, or a keychain to take with you......

yeah, you could make a keychain by grouping a couple together facing the same way, putting a bit of glue and the end of the keychain chain inside the end parts, then wrapping the end parts in an appropriately coloured embroiderer's thread, with a little bit of glue to seal it off.

Something I used to do as a kid, was make quills out of magpie and seagul feathers. I don't know if it would work with parrot feathers (maybe only really large ones). You get one of those cheap plastic pens, and take the middle out of it, the thin plastic tube that contains the ink and the pen part at the end. Then you push it into the shaft, so the white soft stuff that's inside gets pushed up. Push it up as far as it can go. Then cut the plastic tube so that it's the right length that it will fit when pushed up the shaft. It's generally a tight fit and the ink tube will stay up there by itself. Voila you have a modernised old-fashioned quill pen

Here's what I did AP. I collected and kept all Mishka's feather's, even her beautiful red tail ones. I lay them flat, had them laminated, with a little message on top, now I have some beautiful bookmarks.
Good luck

Could you make a decoration for your car mirror with them? I think that's what we'll do with Cal's because I ALWAYS damage key rings =[.

I use my scarlet macaw feathers to make fishing flies, I have been tying artistic flies for years, I beg for natural molted feathers off of any species. Here are a few examples.

this year i am giving my GW's feathers to our social studies teacher to use as quill pens, the kids are so excited! thank goodness i have a small class!

What beautiful fishing flies
seems such a waste of such beautiful feathers but whatever keeps you happy aye

All the artistic flies I tie are put into shadow frames.

Cool. They sure are pretty

This may be a totally geeky idea but what about seeing what other feathers you can collect from various places and collaging them into pictures of fishlife etc.
Make pictures with them of the things you like
another idea was a picture frame and cover it with the puzzle glue it dries totally clear and is waterproof

Here's another idea for the ladies!!! feather earings
http://www.google.ca/images?rlz=1C1...&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1336&bih=683

Ap, what method did you use to laminate the feathers? Sounds kinda cool.

I like the idea of using them for something, its hard to throw such beautiful feathers away.