My good friend Ellie gave me some Peacock feathers for a Christmas present, a week before Christmas. So I used them to make a bunch of gifts for my Sisters-in-Law. They are such magnificent works of nature, and each one was unique, so working with them really just required letting each feather do its own thing and not hiding its beauty. After playing around with them a little bit I developed a way to connect the feather to a sterling silver hoop with silk thread so that it will stay on the hoop without taking away from the feather’s natural shape.

To do this craft you will need a feather- I obviously used peacock feathers, but all feathers are beautiful so use whatever you have. You’ll need thread- I used silk because it is so precious but any sturdy thread will work and it is easy to find iridescent embroidery threads that would be very attractive. You’ll also need a needle, a  head pin, a jump ring and a pair of round nosed pliers.

First you will trim your feather to the length you find attractive. I trimmed off all of the wispy feathers and just used the eye. I left a little bit of the feather shaft before the eye in order to connect the hoop with the silk.

Thread your needle with a foot and a half long length of silk. The thread should be doubled, and rather than knot it off thread it so there are two open threads on one side of the eye and a loop on the other.

Insert your threaded needle through the shaft of the feather about a half centimeter from the end of the feather. and pull it almost through.

Hold your head pin on the back side of the feather shaft with the head of it just a little bit past the place you threaded through the feather. Pass the needle through the loop in the thread and pull tight. This will hold the head pin in place for the next step.

Wrap the thread neatly around the feather shaft and the head pin so that the head pin won’t move. It should look flat and neat . The length of the wrapped thread is a design choice, but it should be at least a quarter-centimeter long to be secure.

To “tie off” the thread without knotting it pass the needle through the shaft of the feather in one direction and pull it tight. Then pass it back through the other direction and pull it tight again. Then cut the threads close to the feather being careful not to accidentally cut the wrapped threads.

With the round nosed pliers trim the head pin so that it is about quarter inch longer than the shaft of the feather. Use your pliers to make a loop at the top of the feather.

Then attach a jump ring to the loop and secure it closed.

TaDa! Here is your finished pendant. You can use this same method to make earrings and attach ear wires to the jump rings. It makes a very elegant and unique piece of jewelry that will surely catch peoples’ eyes!