How to make a peacock feather Barrette

First things first, here's what you will need:

The picture quality isn't very good, so here's a list: You will need two peacock feathers (just the eye part, actually, so if you have whole feathers feel free to cut off the ends), some rhinestones (amount may vary, I use 5 for this design), a barrette (purchase at any local craft store), felt, a hot glue gun with glue, and scissors. Optional: Pliers.

Now you want to cut some felt.

Place your barrette on the felt to measure how much you'll need.

Then cut to size

Now smooth out the edges of your felt square to make it more of an oval.

Don't worry if it's not perfect, you'll make yourself crazy trying to get it just-so. Put the clip and the felt aside and grab your peacock feathers. You want to cut all of the extra away from the 'stem', leaving only the eye. It should go from something like this

To something like this

Do this with both peacock feathers. Now play with your feathers to get a feel for how you want them to look on the barrette.

Grab your felt and one of your feathers. If your feathers are going to overlap like mine, start with the one that will be on the bottom. BEFORE adding any glue, lay it on the felt to get a feel for where the glue should go and how to get the feather to sit just where you want it. Once you put the glue down you're stuck (get it?). So, practice.

It's time for the glue gun! I don't know about you, but I've always loved these things, despite all the burns I've gotten from them over the years. Put down one diagonal stripe of glue roughly where the center line of the feather will be once it's placed.

You don't have much time before the glue cools, so place your feather fast! Press it gently to make sure it stays, but don't wiggle it around. Feathers are delicate, and you can get breaks in the eye pattern.

Now, do the same for the second peacock feather.

You are now ready for the rhinestones. Once again, before you glue anything, place them on the feathers to get an idea for how you want the pattern to look. I also like to use pliers to pick them up, as my fingers tend to drop things a lot.

Put a little dab of glue on the flat side of the rhinestone and place it on the feather.

Lather, rinse, and repeat for the rest of your stones.

Put your peacock feathers pretty-side down, so the felt is facing up, and grab your barrette. Put a line of glue across the barrette, put it on the felt and press down.

For added security, cut a thin strip of felt and slide it under the part of the barrette that sticks out, and glue the ends down.

And you're done! The end result should look something like this:

That's it! For nicer photos of the final product, check out my etsy store.

the metalacalypse

I am not a fan of home depot. Mostly because I have never, not once, found what I was looking for in one of their stores. Often I leave with nothing, although sometimes I will get an item just for the sake of getting an item. However, while looking into wire wrapping and finding more materials to wrap with I read that many people purchase wire at home supply stores. I checked online and it turns out they stock copper and steel wire in the gauges I use. Boyfriend and I went to the store and... couldn't find it. Had to order my wire online. Pain in the ASS.

Anyway, I ended up with some affordable copper wire, which I have been playing with. I like the contrast it gives to my orthoceras fossils and it looks very pretty on rose quartz. I made a few pendants and am feeling very proud of myself. I find myself wishing I had also purchased a thinner wire, so I could try using it to wrap my feathers. I'm also thinking about trying out some of the steel wire next time around.

coming soon... how to make a peacock feather barrette!

picture perfect?

I made a light box! Or... at least I tried to make one. I think it turned out alright.

The lights I'm currently using are too bright, I think. I tried retaking some of the pictures of my pendants. I've had no luck photographing them, the colors never look right, and there is always a reflection.  My hope was that the light box would eliminate some of these issues.The jury is still out on the results. Take a look here to see for yourself. A big thank you to Boyfriend, who helped with the construction.

This has been on my to do list for some time. Now that it's out of the way (mostly) I can get back to actually making things and posting new items.

Assuming I don't buy Skyrim.

Organization

I recently moved. And, by 'recently' I mean 8 weeks ago. Boyfriend and I are still living out of boxes, because we were ambushed by the holidays and therefore could not unpack. I'm slowly finding all of my supplies and the items I had finished before the move. It hasn't been fun, and some of my things didn't survive the transition. Feathers are fragile, man.

It has recently come to my attention that I am an adult, and as such I should be more organized. This has nothing to do with new year resolutions, I swear. The first thing that needs organization is my etsy stuff. I know better, from my own experience, and the experiences of others, that it is dangerous to get too excited about this sort of thing. I figured I would start small, with a way to deal with my earrings:

 

Nice, right? I don't have that many earrings left, as they sold way better than I was expecting. I'm going to use the extra spaces for the necklaces. The best way for me to stick to an organizational plan is to  make it idiot proof. This qualifies. Put tack in board. Hang item from tack. Feel smug. These are all things I can do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit back and think about how awesome being an organized adult is.

A fresh start for the new year.

I'm going to try this whole blogging thing. I have no idea if it will work. I have this etsy store and it's a common thing on etsy to have a blog to go with it. I don't have the motivation to keep my facebook page updated, so we'll see how this goes.