DIY Gold Feather Flower Arrangement

I wish I was classy enough to have fresh flowers in my apartment all the time but they’re expensive and it seems kind of wasteful, so I display dead ones instead. Dead like my soul. Joking! I mean, I do think dried flowers look pretty cute and so I’ve arranged bunches with some sparkly feathers to create this pretty way to spruce up your living room. I’m a big fan of collecting second hand trinkets and almost all the knick knacks you see here have come from charity shops or car boot sales, including the bronze vases. Whenever I go charity-shop-shopping I’ll head for an area that’s full of them and browse them all in one go. I think on every trip that I’ve done I’ve found bronze homeware like this, so check your local charity shop if you’d like some!

Materials:
Vase
Flowers
String
Feathers*
Gold Spray Paint
PVA glue (& a glue gun if you have one!)
Glitter

*Buying cruelty free feathers is a right minefield. The majority of craft feathers and feathers on clothing comes from real birds and are often plucked in a cruel way or are sold as a by-product of the meat industry, as described in this great article. I bought my feathers from a seller on Etsy who claims they are synthetic, but I’m doubtful. If you have a friend with chickens, parrots or other birds, you could ask to collect their feather as they moult naturally. Otherwise, this eBay seller has cruelty free feathers, and looks like a good bet for all your ethical feather needs!

To begin with you need to dry out your flowers. I’ve found the best way to do this is to tie them together with string and hang them upside down in a cool dry area for a week. This way, they dry in a perky position. If you don’t hang them up they’ll dry looking wilted and sad, which might be what you’re going for, it’s up to you!

Tape down the feathers (to stop them from blowing around when you’re spraying them) and spray paint the ends. Once they’re dry, do the other side.

Next, paint some PVA on to the feathers (be sure to leave a bit of gold showing) and sprinkle glitter on top. Repeat for the other side! Once the glue is dry, secure the feathers onto the stalks of the flowers using a glue gun. I positioned them in the gap between the main stem and other leafy stalks so it looks as if the feathers are growing out of the stem itself. You could probably do this with PVA but you’d need to hold the feathers in place as the glue becomes tacky which might take a while. Alternatively, if you can find long feathers you could just position them in the vase with the flowers.

I hope you liked this festive little DIY. With Christmas approaching, the urge to spray paint everything gold is becoming overwhelming. I might start bulk buying fairy lights and candles as a distraction instead. The warm light quality of candles is helping to combat the dark and dreary days we’re having here in Scotland, and spending my afternoon glittering feathers certainly hasn’t hurt either! I’m reluctant to talk too much about the C word before December (and would certainly never mention it before Halloween, those are the rules) but the blogosphere is so overrun with it by now I may just give in and decorate.