Byrd Brain

From Sasha

I have feathers on the mind, that's no secret. Here are some lovely pictures from ladies who share my avian fascination:

 

From Cari Ann Wayman, better known as yyellowbird to you Flickr aficionados. I just stumbled upon her imaginative, envelope-pushing work, and I am in total awe.

 

I found this image by Vogue photographer Tim Walker when I was wandering faaaaar out on the periphery of the web, and I stumbled upon a blog called nokaalma. There is some debate about whether these are real swans... if so, I say they are heavily sedated. (The dirt makes them look genuine... but I guess Vogue can pay someone to rub dirt on a stuffed swan.)

This image was featured in Sally Jane Vintage's recent post about actress Tallulah Bankhead. Sally Jane does one of the most interesting and personal fashion and arts blogs out there, by the way, so you should put her on your reading list STAT!

 

This extraordinary picture is by one of my very favorite image-makers on planet earth, Calico Courtney Brookes... she is a modern photographer, believe it or not, though she obviously owns a magic time machine! Check out her fabulous work here.

 

This image of the Ziegfeld Follies star Princess White Deer is from our friend Tamara aka Verhext's Flickr photostream. (God I love me a Ziegfeld girl! Thank goodness there were cameras back then.) Verhext always finds the best images in the world, when she is not straight up making them herself. She also finds the best clothes, which she sells on Etsy. Check her out!

 

I just got this pair of feather earrings in the mail this week, and I haven't taken them off since! They go with everything, including one of my favorite summer dresses, pictured here:

 

The earring designer is Rachelle Starr, and she is a total riot. I recommend that you buy something from her awesome Etsy store, Starrbeads, just so you can get a chance to talk to her! She has lived an awesome, sparklingly creative life, designing feathered halters for Hustler photo shoots in the 70s, necklaces for Oscar de la Renta, and the masks for Prince's Purple Rain movie... and that is just the tip of the iceberg. She uses feathers that she acquired in the 60s and 70s, which makes her work totally unique. Her best quote: "We are not born with Feathers, We need to Decorate!" Run, don't walk to her Etsy store! (Everything is reasonably priced, too.)

To top off my week, Chris found me two of the biggest feather in the world. They look like they come from the zoo! But maybe they are just turkey tail feathers. Anyhoo, they were promptly installed on my dashboard shrine, and voila-- the shrine just got one hundred thousands times cooler. It also got one thousand million times more hippie, so now if I get pulled over I'm sure I am going to get some kind of lecture about smoking weed-- but it is worth it! My Honda is now a winged being! (Yup, my Accord. I know I'm cool.)