Homemade Christmas Ornaments

"Joule's Pheasant Feather Wreath"

Submitted by Joule Charney of CA

I am a hunter. The feathers in this craft are from the tail of a pheasant I harvested. I also adorned the grapevine wreath with wooden flowers. My favorite part about making this was figuring out which items to place on the wreath and their precise arrangement. Once that was decided, I hot glued them to secure them.

The gravevine wreath and wooden flowers were purchased at a local chain crafts store. The feathers can be purchased, even though I removed mine from a bird I hunted. Finding feathers in stores can be difficult, and they are very expensive. I recommend getting them from a hunter or hunt club. Most hunters I know throw theirs away, which I think is a real shame. 

I am proud of being a bird hunter, and proud that I eat the meat AND utilize the feathers in crafts. I get a kick out of how this confuses and weirds-out a great many folks who just can't reconcile what they think of as a 'manly' sport and a 'granny craft.' 

I am a woman, and did not own a bird dog and began hunting when I was 40 and my son was only three-years old. I now am 58 and have two black Labs, one who is almost 10 and a puppy who is almost six months old.

2011 Homemade Christmas Ornaments Index