Mr. CraftyPaws’ grandmother had a gorgeous collection of vintage feathers that were from her days working in the French-American fashion house of Lilly DachĂ© that specialized in millinery designs. After celebrating her 101st birthday last December, she passed away, and my hubby’s uncle kindly sent this collection to me.
I have been thinking long and hard about how to honor my hubby’s grandmother and highlight these beautiful feathers in a lasting and impactful way. I finally decided I could achieve this by curating the mass of feathers and displaying them in shadow boxes. I gathered 4 shadow boxes (2 from my stash that I could re-purpose and 2 from Michaels when they had a 60% off sale) and lined the backs of all of them with some remnant linen fabric that I upcycled from old Ikea curtains.
Then it was a matter of trying different combinations of feathers. I wanted to play with colors, textures, and general grouping shapes. I hot glued some into shaped clusters, and grouping others into rows after carefully wrapping the bases with black wired ribbon. I “cheated” a little and dyed one dingy clump of white feathers into a teal/aqua color with Tattered Angel and DecoArt shimmer mist, and I added one peacock feather assembly I bought from Michaels just to brighten up the collection and add some pops of blue (my favorite color). In the end, I wanted to create home decor art that would communicate the importance of these vintage feathers to our family history while still fitting in with our contemporary aesthetic. I think by combining, lining up, and grouping the feathers in these shadow boxes, I was able to do just that.
The following is a video share of these shadow box art pieces:
These feather shadow boxes are being entered into the following challenges:
MFT Sketch Challenge #386
Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
Creatalicious Anything Goes with Optional All that Glitters Challenge
Card Mania Anything But a Card Challenge
613 Avenue Create Anything Goes with Optional Mainly Blue Challenge
Crafty Gals Corner Anything Goes Challenge
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes Challenge
Beautifully done.
Family heirlooms in a modern display!
Thanks so much Vicki! I’m so happy it turned out well and that my hubby’s family likes it!
Beautiful Feathers … Thanxx For Sharing With Us At Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends.
Sherry Lynn
DT
Thank you so much Lynn!
I love the feathers and the idea to put them in frame.
Thanks for sharing in Card mania challenge.
Kati
Thank you so much Kati! I love the feathers too, and I’m so pleased that my husband’s family likes this display too. 🙂
Interesting and beautiful project. Thanks for joining us at Card Mania Challenges. Good luck and hope you’ll join us again.
Thank you very much! It was such a joy to see all these vintage feathers out of their box and displayed where we can all enjoy their special beauty and history.
Wonderful!
Thanks for playing at Card Mania Challenge. Sorry for the late comment.
Ileanaxx
Thanks bunches, Ileana! I really like how these displays turned out and so did my hubby’s family. 🙂
That is genius! They turned out beautiful! Love how you displayed them! 🙂
Awww thanks so much! I really like how the displays turned out and fortunately so does my hubby’s family! :P)
What a great way to honor her legacy and create unique pieces for your home!
Thank you! My hubby’s family loved the display. 🙂
Wow, what a great collection! Thank you for joining our last month’s Challenge at 613 Avenue Create. There’s still time to join our Challenge this month and we’d love to see you back. Have a blessed week.
JO ANN
https://jatterburycreations.blogspot.com
Thank you Jo Ann!
A great project!
Thank you soo much for taking part in our “anything goes with optional all that glitters” challenge over at Creatalicious & good luck in the draw.
Hope to see you again in our new challenge as well…
Hugs,
Melanie
(DT-Coordinator Creatalicious Challenges)
(DT Crafty Friends)
(DT The Sketchy Challenges)
PS: Sorry for the late comment, life had been very busy these past weeks…
Thanks so much Melanie!