Monday, July 25, 2011

How to Make a Peacock Hat

So if you are looking to make a peacock hat you have really two styles of peacock hat that you can choose from. Just a quick disclaimer this is really more how to make a regular hat into a peacock hat not to make a peacock hat from scratch.

OK so your first option is a peacock hat like the one that Mrs. Peacock is wearing in the movie clue. This is a fairly simple peacock hat to make. All you need to do is get a small felt hat, black or dark green would be the best colors. Now to make this hat into a peacock hat, like the one that Mrs. Peacock wore, you need to add a Peacock feather pin. And a peacock pin to make a peacock hat is just any pin with peacock feathers. Get a pin which you like but also make sure that there is space in the inside of the pin where you can attach the peacock feathers. Now you just need to buy some peacock feathers, I suggest to get smaller peacock feathers but hey if you want to get a little crazy and get some big ones you go right ahead. Now all you need to do is attach four peacock feathers to the inside of the pin with a hot glue gun, attach the feathers so that there are two feathers coming out of two opposite sides of the hat and attach the pin to the hat to transform this regular hat into a peacock hat. To make it look like the peacock that Mrs. Peacock wore place the pin on the hat with the feathers coming out of both sides of the head.

The second kind of peacock hat you can make is a Victorian style hat using peacock feathers. This kind of Victorian style peacock hat is also pretty simple to make. All you need is a straw brimmed hat, a few large peacock feathers, some satin ribbon, some light weight very fine netting, a needle and thread and a hot glue gun.

Now let’s make our Victorian style peacock hat. Wrap the satin ribbon around the crown of the hat and use the hot glue gun to glue it into place. Place the bottoms of about four feathers into the ribbon on one of the sides of the hat. And glue them in which ever position you like. Cut a five foot strip of the fine netting. Wrap the fine netting around the crown of the hat. Place the middle of the netting on the front of the crown so that it is right above the forehead, pull the two ends back and then wrap them around the forehead again. Then use the needle and thread to attach the netting to the hat in two or three spots. Don’t forget to knot the stitches on the inside of the hat. That’s it you have now made a Victorian style peacock hat.

Have fun!!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Make Your Own Peacock Costume Using Real Peacock Feathers

Its seems like a joke of nature that the male peacock is the pretty and colorful one of the peafowl, but I don’t think there are going to be much guys looking to dress up as colorful peacocks. Not that there is anything wrong with it if they do but if you are a guy and you don’t want to wear a dress with your costume then where ever I write dress, for you guys I mean pants.

Ok so you want to dress up as a peacock and you are not interested in buying a already made costume. Good choice from what I know about the standard peacock costumes that are purchased for the most part they are ok but they rarely fit well and require minor alterations and additional stitching to really look good.

Creating an attractive peacock costume on your own is not a difficult task. All you really need to do is put together the correct materials and you can make your own peacock costume easily.

Basic Components of a Peacock Costume

Colorful clothing with peacock plumage

Peacock tail

Peacock mask

Colorful Clothing With Peacock Plumage

What you need is a fitted dress in a blue, teal or purple. Now what you need is to purchase some peacock plumage. Attach the plumage feathers along the bodice of the dress using a simple double or triple stitch; don’t forget to finish the stitch off with a double knot on the inside of the dress. If you want to go all out you can add a gold or silver trim and as much plumage as you would like.

Peacock Tail

All you need make your own peacock tail is some large peacock tail feathers, a plastic fan, a hot glue gun, some 6-gauge craft wire and a belt.

Attach the peacock tail feathers to the fan by putting a line of hot glue on one of the fans plastic supports. Then quickly push the feather into the hot glue. The peacock tail feather should be attached vertically to the plastic support with the bottom of the feather directly above the bottom center of the fan. Do this until you are happy with the fullness and look of your peacock tail and let it dry over night. Now thread the wire through the fan, attach the peacock tail to the belt and you are done.

Peacock Mask

You could buy a peacock mask but if you want to make one yourself here is an easy way to do it. Get a inexpensive black eye mask and use hot glue to attach small peacock feathers above the eyes with the bottom stems of the feathers facing toward the center of your forehead.

Do this all and you still won’t look like a peacock, but you will look good and everyone will get the idea.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

How to Make a Peacock Centerpiece - Simple and Easy

A peacock centerpiece can be very fun and simple to make. Also a peacock centerpiece, made using the beautiful multi colored peacock tail feathers, is very attractive and eye catching. To create your own peacock center piece all you need are three things.

1- About ten peacock tail feathers

2- Some clean sand or gravel

3- A decorative vase

Now once you have these three things you are ready to put together your peacock centerpiece.

First trim the lower stems of the feathers off to make the peacock feathers the right height for your centerpiece (if needed). The peacock feathers should be at a height where the eye on the feather is anywhere from six to ten inches from the top of the vase when they are standing up in the vase. This all depends on how high you want your peacock centerpiece to be.

Now place about one inch of sand or grave at the bottom of the vase. After the sand is in you can place the peacock tail feathers around the outer edge of the vase standing straight up with the eyes facing out. Space out the feathers so that they are just touching their neighboring feathers. If the size of the jar does not allow for and exact fit space the peacock tail feathers out more as opposed to pushing them together. Push the feathers down into the sand to keep them standing up straight. Now you can have the option of making the peacock centerpiece multi level or not. You can add more sand or gravel so that the inner row of feathers are higher up then the first outer row and that will give the peacock centerpiece more height and two separate levels of eyes. Or you can also space out the first row and then have the inner and outer row of peacock feathers visible.

Whichever you chose the peacock feathers give the centerpiece a wonderful and colorful beauty that will bring life to any space it is placed.

Buy peacock feathers online at www.featherstor.com and create you peacock center piece now

Monday, July 11, 2011

Peacock Feathers and Peacock tail - what does the peacock do with them?


Peacock feathers are used by the male peacock in courtship. It is actually a really interesting thing to watch. The male bird opens up his big tail of peacock feathers he finds the female peacock and shakes his feathers at her. It is interesting to note that the female peacock is not called a peacock but a peahen, only the male is really a peacock (you have to find this at least a bit funny). They are both actually called peafowl. The peahen`s feathers are brown or grey brown in color. The peacock feathers are iridescent blue-green and green colored plumage. It is the peacock`s tail that hold the real beauty of the bird. The peacock tail has eyes all over it. And it is the peacock tail that opens up or fans out in order to attract the peahen. When you watch this all happen you can see that the peacock feathers have an almost hypnotizing effect.

You would never think it but peacocks can get really violent. Near my house there is a small petting zoo and they have a big bird cage with peacocks and turkey. Now the peacock`s tail would be open and he would be trying to get his peahen. If a turkey was unfortunate enough to walk between peacock and peahen, oh boy would that get the peacock mad. The peacock would chase this poor ugly turkey around and peck the heck out of him. I really thought the peacock would kill the poor turkey.

A really interesting thing about peacock feathers is that they don’t actually have as many colors as it appears. Some of the colors are created by what is called optical interference Bragg reflections. A slight change in the spacing results in different colors. For example the brown peacock feathers are actually a mixture of blue and red peacock feathers.

Buy Peacock Feathers Online