«Previous    Next»
She Makes Colorful Art From Pheasant Feathers
Barb Knoff knows how to accentuate the beauty of pheasant feathers. Hunters and other homeowners love the ornaments, wreaths, wall hangings, and other items she creates.
At 76, the Nashotah, Wis., self-taught artist started creating with feathers about a decade ago. She was making jewelry at the time when she saw a poorly made feather ornament at a local business.
“I thought, ‘I can do better than that’,” Knoff recalls.
She starts with skinned pheasant pelts and dries them for a couple of weeks in 20 Mule Team Borax. That preserves them so she can remove the feathers later.
Prepping the feathers is the most tedious because every feather has down that must be clipped off. Knoff uses some of the down for fluffy centers on her ornaments, but she focuses on the feathers and the rainbow of colors they offer.
“I have boxes of feathers that are all the same color,” she says.
She uses tweezers to place feathers one at a time onto her designs, securing them with a dab of tacky glue applied with a skewer or toothpick.
“The feathers I use on a horse’s leg are smaller than a little fingernail,” Knoff says.
Ornaments ($15) are her best sellers, but she glues feathers on tanned deer hide to create wall hangings and dreamcatchers as well as horses, bears, butterflies and other creatures.
Some of the items are sold to hunters who are members of the hunting club where she gets her pheasant pelts. Hunters often leave behind some of the pheasants they’ve shot and Knoff picks them up for free. She removes the breasts and gives them away for food, often to a local food shelf.
She also has a booth at the Brown Street Emporium in Oconomowoc, Wis., a 7,000 sq. ft. artisan mall.
“This is a hobby, not a money-making process,” Knoff says, when she considers the hours she puts into each piece. Wall hangings range from $25 to $125.
She loves to create and try new things, such as the greeting cards she recently started making.
She also does commission pieces, often using feathers from the pheasants that hunters bring to her to have a special piece made.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Barb Knoff, Feathered Designs, 345 Nashotah Rd., Nashotah, Wis. 53058 (ph 262 370-7868; barbknoff@gmail.com).



  Click here to download page story appeared in.



  Click here to read entire issue




To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.
Order the Issue Containing This Story
2020 - Volume #44, Issue #6