Feather Display
This morning Manolo & I went to pick out the roof tiles for our house at a local clay brick/tile shop. This little brick caught my eye I knew it had to come home with me. I glued a piece of leather to the bottom to protect the furniture and it now houses my beautiful collection of feathers. All the feathers have been gifts from my lovely readers, friends and family. They know me well :)
posted by Geninne at 3:58 PM
what a beautiful and simple way to showcase your collection!
What a great way to display feathers! I have tried so many different ones over the years...at present they are all in a big vase (along with all the dust that collects in there with them). This is just brilliant. There is just some thing so special about feathers.
Positively gorgeous!
ohhh clay roofing! beautiful feather collection!
This is such a creative idea, and looks beautiful, I love the variety of feathersxx
what an impressive collection of feathers! :-)
so simple and yet so very beautiful, just as nature should be.
oh! what a lovely collection of feathers
What an ingenious idea with the brick! Love it!
Great idea for the brick! I've been looking for a way to store my pens horizontally, and now I've found it!
Thanks.
Like nature's work of art :)
That's a fine feather collection and they look perfect displayed in that brick, what a clever idea!xx
Now THAT'S creative!
I recognize these little blue ones ;-)
Lovely idea and I love your feather collection!
I am so jealous of your lovely feather...would love to have feathers like that over here in UK. I always love your work and am so glad l found your blog. Lynda x
Querida Geninne
Does my eye notice a feather from the swans in Bruges?
! Preciosa!
Besos de lejos
Vera
That's very clever, and a beautiful way to display feathers!
what a beautiful and simple.painting designs.and very nice blog.
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what a wonderful collection! so many interesting varieties. i always pick them up, but i don't make a point of keeping them all together in a collection - so who knows where they are. i do have a small bag of some that my father in law collected for me. i don't know what kind of bird it is from - but it is from western canada - and they are small and gray & yellow. if you send me your address i would gladly mail you a couple for your collection.
your collection bought an audible sigh from me.. so beautiful.. and such a great way to display it.
jenni
I must confess, while I visit your site at home, etc., I visit your site at work on days when things are out of control. You talent inspires and amazes. Your artwork offers me moments of serene joy. Thank you!
it is illegal to possess feathers - but then someone who would build such a huge home in their habitat probably doesn't even think about their impact on the natural world. For someone who is supposedly so enamored with nature your selfish actions speak otherwise.
What a good way of showing off all the different feathers.
Beautiful with the blueish ones.
Wow, anonymous, how brave of you to back up your convictions with your actual name. FYI, any house ever built by mankind is in a birds natural habitat.
It *is* illegal to collect feathers from wild birds, even if they were gifts, but Anonymous did nothing to educate the public on this, just was a huge jerk.
Most people have no clue that it is against the law to possess feathers they find on the ground. The people displaying collections obviously have no idea & don't deserve such an attitude, but maybe just a heads up. Yeesh.
I've never known anyone to be arrested for small, private feather collections. But the law is there & is there to protect our fine feathered friends from a-holes who butcher raptors & wild birds with pretty feathers for fun or profit & ruin a lovely way to express a love of nature for the rest of us.
Have you guys seen The Feather Atlas? I love it: http://www.lab.fws.gov/fa/index.php
Well said, Erin. I had no idea before yesterday. So I guess anonymous did educate me, but also left a bad taste in my mouth. Personally. Will keep collecting what I find on the ground and I think if my home ever gets raided it will be pretty clear I didn't kill any birds.
Chill out everyone. Firstly, in the USA it is illegal to possess feathers of native migratory birds. Not all feathers. How do I know this when I live in South Africa and you don't know what's going on in your own country? Secondly, how do you not realise that Geninne does not live in the USA? Original troll was obviously just being spiteful out of jealousy, but please, US people, can you refrain from assuming that the entire world is governed by your laws? It comes across as being extremely arrogant as well as ignorant.
Sorry if I was a bit, um, loud there, but it was such a shock to find a nasty comment like that on the comment threads of Geninne's site which are usually such a safe place.
Heather, if you find a feather, who's to say that it was necessarily dropped by a migratory bird? I doubt the bird police are going to barge into your house and do a DNA test. As Erin said, they probably won't be going for small private collections anyway.
Yesterday I said people were funny, this indeed drives it home, thanks for the information. I will do the research my self. Had I found these lovely feathers, I would not have left them on the ground as my interesting friend would have, I'm funny that way too. :)
Thanky you! I had no idea!
I once heard a representative from the Audubon Society say this and hoped he'd never find my small collection. I'm sure the laws came about because of the wholesale slaughter of birds for ladies fashion. I can't see that this would apply to picking up feathers you find in Nature.
Concerning Anonymous,...Pretty cowardly to anonymously be so harsh and judging. I think if you criticize someone for living in a certain kind of house, you must state truthfully what kind of house YOU live in as well. They rarely ever do.
I used to sell feather jewellery, and did a bunch of research on this before I offered my items for sale in the US. I wish I could find the link I used but there is a list somewhere on the internet of the specific migratory species its illegal to collect feathers from.
Although frankly I never understood why, because the lil birds clearly don't need them anymore and its not harming anyone/thing to pick them up off the floor. And I'm pretty sure you're not going to get into trouble if you have a small collection in your home. I'm sure its only if you have a large quantity and use them for commercial reasons?
Hey Dianne, there's actually a link to the list itself on the page that Erin linked to a few posts above. I'm sure the law is like that so that people who do kill birds for the feathers can't get away with it by going "But I found them all on the ground!!!" I'm also sure that very few officials would go after a person for having a few feathers in their home.
For the sake of education, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act actually includes Mexico, too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918
And most bird experts (including government employees whose job it is to defend the Act) can identify birds based on a single feather, down to species, age, and sex. (They can even tell diet, health, toxins levels, etc, using advanced DNA techniques).
Having said that, they are not going to come in and check your personal collection of found random feathers - they have bigger fish to fry. I am glad that the Act exists though, and I'm glad this thread exists, to aid in bird education and conservation.
Geninne, could you maybe show the individual feathers and tell us what bird they came from? I've never seen some of those before! Gorgeous! I love love love birds, and your art!
Yes, Theresa is right, I checked and it includes Mexico and Canada. But if it's only migratory birds I don't think I have to worry about what I find. I almost always find blue jay or pigeon feathers. They both stay here all winter. :D Again, not too worried and I'll keep whatever I find.
Definitely an interesting discussion and quite frankly I'm more fascinated at the variety Geninne has! I've never seen anything like that.
Very lovely, I especially enjoy the speckled ones. Almost like precious freckles, also known as angel's kisses!