These tiny peacock body feathers are ideal for feather jewelry. They are sometimes hard to find, unlike the more common tail fan feathers.
Although I did not raise peacocks in my flock, I knew a woman who did, and kept her birds in the same way I did, resulting in cruelty-free feathers.
Her male peacock had fallen in love with her Rhea, and every year he molted. Every year, I bought his fallen feathers.
In this way, I had plenty of peacock feathers for arts and crafts.
The peacock tail feathers are the best known. The eyes on the feathers can turn away the “evil eye” and can symbolize all-seeing wisdom.
I loved the body feathers, because some of them were miniature versions of the tail feathers, complete with eyes, or with rainbow edges – which I used to make delightful small feather jewels.
The long feathery fronds that run up the edges of the tail feathers are called “herl” and I think they are great for mixed media texture, or grouped together for a different kind of feather jewel.
Peacock feather care is similar to our own hair care, except when blow-drying, it is easy to burn the floaty ends of the feathers, so be careful. They can be lightly soaped, washed, and then if you spread citronella or cedar oil on lightly on your hands, you can groom the feathers back to their natural shape. Clean and protected from bugs.
Peacock feathers are included in the feather sampler collections I have on my site. Gorgeous feathers from happy birds.