By Emily Etheredge
After seeing the range of colors on the 14,000 pheasants housed at Mims Gamebird Farm in Clanton, Leslie Cleckler decided to create handmade jewelry using loose feathers from the birds.
“A lot of times, the feathers will just float in the yard and I will walk around and pick them up,” Leslie said. “I noticed how beautiful the feathers were and wanted to do something unique with them so I started making earrings from the feathers and really liked how they looked. I clean all of the feathers and then use them for earrings.”
Leslie’s husband Jason works at the farm raising pheasants and Chukar birds to sell to hunting preserves throughout Alabama.
Although Leslie does not harm any of the birds to make her jewelry, many of the birds occasionally lose feathers that she collects and turns into jewelry.
“The neat thing about pheasants is each bird has a different color on them,” Leslie said. “No two birds are the same.”
Jason has been involved in the bird business for more than 20 years and raises the pheasants after purchasing them as chicks.
“We get the birds when they are one day old,” Jason said. “We essentially have to raise them like their mother would until they are old enough to be sold to the hunting preserves.”
The birds live in outdoor flying pens on the Clecklers’ property and Leslie’s dad raises quail across the street from the Clecklers’ home.
“I have always grown up around birds,” Leslie said. “The beauty of the feathers has always appealed to me, but I just never knew what I could really do with them until I decided to try out making jewelry.”
Jason said when pheasants are small, the feathers do not have a range of color and it is only when the birds mature that the male pheasants develop their beauty.
“You don’t usually see the colors on the male pheasants until they are about 18 weeks old,” Jason said. “The female pheasants aren’t very pretty and stay the same brown color their entire life.”
Leslie said Jason often collects the majority of the feathers for her jewelry due to his constant interaction with the birds.
“They [the birds] trust him,” Leslie said. “He is around them more so while he is out working he will see a lot of the feathers and bring them to me. I then spend my time cleaning the feathers and matching them up to make a pair.”
Due to each bird having a specific color pattern on the feathers, Leslie said the hardest part is finding a match for each set of earrings.
“The feathers are like snowflakes in that no two are alike,” Leslie said. “I can usually find a similar pattern or color scheme and match them that way.”
After making several pair of earrings, a relative of Leslie’s suggested she start selling them.
“I made about 60 pairs of earrings and went to my first craft fair in November,” Leslie said. “I sold more than half and found out they were a popular hit so I decided that I would start selling them.”
After finding a pair of feathers for a set of earrings, Leslie can usually have one pair finished within 30 minutes.
“I like different and unique things and was surprised to find out that so many people liked the earrings,” Leslie said. “I guess with pheasants you get so many beautiful colors from the feathers that they make unique looking jewelry.”
Leslie also uses some feathers from the Chukar birds raised on the property although the birds do not have the bright colors like the pheasants.
“I am a walking advertisement because I wear the earrings all of the time,” Leslie said. “I have found myself getting attached to each pair after working on them and I enjoy seeing others get excited about wearing them.”
Leslie sells each pair of earrings for $7, and they can be purchased via e-mail or telephone.
Leslie is also in the process of working to develop a Facebook page for her jewelry.
For more information or to purchase a pair of the earrings, email lmcleckler@hotmail.com or call (205) 280-6622.