Just before Christmas, my friend Lianne commissioned me to make some necklaces as gifts for her family. Lianne gave me some pointers about the kinds of styles or colours they might like. The brief for her Mum's necklace, however, was a bit more specific.
A while ago Lianne's Mum visited a clairvoyant, who had told her that if she saw a white feather it signified that her late Mother was thinking of her. The belief that white feathers are the calling card of a guardian angel goes way back into the mists of time, but is still popular today.
The necklace was to feature a white feather, so I started sketching up some designs and searching for a suitable vintage feather charm.
An initial necklace design
Appropriately enough, once I started looking for feathers they started turning up everywhere. The difficult bit was choosing the 'right' one, as it needed to be big enough to have some impact. Once I'd acquired a substantial & pleasingly tactile 1980's metal feather brooch, I got to work removing the clasp & coating it with glossy white enamel paint.
The feather brooch, part way through conversion
The white feather was hung from a loose plait of black seed beads and gold chains, set off with some chunkier back & white beads. I couldn't resist painting a tiny white wing charm, to finish off the extension chain.
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| "Feathers appear when angels are near" |
Beautiful necklace, well done Zoe. I'm a firm believer in the white feather theory. The day after my stillborn daughter was delivered my husband took me out to buy a locket to put a lock of her hair and her picture in. We went to a lovely antique shop in Windsor and while we were looking at the lockets a white feather floated down on to the counter. The owner of the shop (who had no idea why we were there) said "a feather from a guardian angel". How we held it together in the shop I will never know. Needless to say I bought that locket.
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