At last! I have finally found a source for cleaned, cruelty-free feathers.
In keeping with my vegetarian principles for my jewellery, there are a number of animal-derived materials that I don't use. Most feathers that are available for craft work have come from who-knows-where (most likely a slaughterhouse). Having no desire to support or be associated with the slaughterhouse industry, I have been searching for many months for a source of high quality, sterile, cruelty-free feathers. On Etsy I found LetsGetFeathered, a shop that supplies a variety of feathers from a variety of birds – parrots, pheasants, cockerels, guinea fowl, turkeys, etc. – and all feathers are moulted or taken from birds that died of natural causes. All of the feathers are hand selected to ensure their quality, then cleaned and sterilised; so all the work has been done for me and I can get on with creating. Perfect!
On Friday I received my first order from LetsGetFeathered, and I am very pleased with it. The feathers are gorgeous, clean, very usable, and in very good condition. Here's my first creation with their feathers:
This 'Autumn Bird' hairband uses two types of rooster feathers.
In January I mentioned in this blog post that I would be introducing some new Silverlight Jewellery product lines this year. You've just seen a preview of the first new line: a collection of embellished hairbands.
I'm quite excited about this new product line. There'll be a number of challenges inherent in creating these hairbands, since they're a bit different from anything I've made before; challenges such as using feathers and doing photoshoots with live models! However, making this first hairband was a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to the challenge of creating this new line and getting it listed.
Stay tuned for more previews ...
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