How to Clean Your Bird Feathers for Crafts

Using bird feathers for crafts is a fun way to be both creative and add a new dimension to all your crafts. However, buying bird feathers can be expensive. So, you begin to collect your own bird feathers, perhaps from your neighbor’s chickens or via picking up dropped feathers in your own yard. You’ve got a plethora of feathers at-the-ready for crafts, but you want them to be clean first. So, how do you clean bird feathers for crafts?

This is an easy one. Feathers are pretty much just like hair, and you can wash them like hair. Using a dish soap designed to remove grease (like Dawn), wash your feathers individually in your sink or tub (depending on the length of the feathers) with hot water. Simply dip the bird feather in the soapy water and use your fingers to gently draw out dirt and debris that is on the feather.

Rinse the feathers individually in hot water, then place on a towel to dry. Some feathers take to the cleaning better than others, such as duck or goose feathers, since they are designed to be water resistant. Other feathers, like starling or magpie (like the ones I use for crafts that I find) have to be re-shaped once they have been washed. Easy to do though- simply allow them to dry almost completely, then shape the damp feather by running it through your fingers. Even a completely dry feather is easy to shape again the way it was after cleaning.

Voila! Now you have your own bird feathers to use for crafts without having to worry about cleaning them anymore. Just make sure that the soap you use is designed for grease (in other words, shampoo won’t work) and that if you are using feathers that are not water fowl, that you wash re-shape them after you wash them. Now you can have your own bird feathers to use for crafts without spending money, and you know they are safe to dye, paint, or just incorporate into your craft projects because you’ve cleaned them yourself.

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how I clean bird feathers for crafts (feathers that I find)


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