I love to bring the outdoors in by decorating with natural elements. I am displaying this vintage mason jar of turkey feathers on my mantel. If you would like to decorate with found feathers, be aware that they likely have mites on them.
Taxidermists recommend that you seal them in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for at least a week to kill the mites. I was impatient, so I soaked my feathers overnight in a strong solution of borax and water.
In the morning I rinsed the feathers and spread them on a cookie sheet in a warm oven. They were dry in about 20 minutes. To fix the separated barbs, I gently pinched the feather between my fingers and smoothed it in one direction from the quill to the tip. More feather decor inspiration from the web:
