Wiktionary
n. 1 (context uncountable English) The working of feathers into a cultural artifact. 2 (context countable English) A cultural artifact made with feathers.
Wikipedia
Featherwork is the working of feathers into a work of art or cultural artifact. This was especially elaborate among the peoples of Oceania and the Americas, such as the Incas and Aztecs.
Feathered cloaks and headdresses include the ʻahuʻula capes and mahiole helmets were worn by Hawaiian royalty; many are now on display at the Bishop Museum, and other museums across the world. Kāhili are a type of feathered standard, another symbol of royalty. The introduction of foreign species, overhunting, and environment changes drove birds with desirable feathers, such as the ‘ō‘ō and mamo, to extinction, though the sacred scarlet honeycreeper survived despite its popularity.
Mexican feather work was a Pre-Columbian art form which was continued after the Conquest of Mexico, originally organized by the Spanish missionaries into a luxury export trade, sending objects back to Europe. Immediately after the conquest existing objects such as Montezuma's headdress, now in Vienna, were admired in the courts of Europe.
Although featherwork is primarily used for clothing, headdresses, ceremonial shields, and tapestries, the Pomo peoples of California are famous for the minute featherwork of their grass baskets, many of which are on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.
The Maori of New Zealand used featherwork to construct cloaks for clothing and to decorate kete (bags) and weapons.
Usage examples of "featherwork".
I pulled my cloak tighter around me, fingering the single row of featherwork at the neck of my cape.
The blood had soaked into the featherwork and there was no way to get it clean.
He told us how the Tlapallicos raided across these Debatable Lands, having maps of the sweet waters on their lines of march, and brought back prisoners who were prized for their skill hi featherwork and blanket weaving.
We marched again, in search of new conquests, but before I left I slipped the gorgeous tunic over the head of that effigy of mine, making the other featherwork look tawdry in comparison, and I promised the priest, whose care it was, that the circle of conquest I had begun should be broadened until we had scured enough feathers of the Nuitziton to cover the effigy completely.
Naelore had laid out a yellow-and-green featherwork girdle for her waist and a cloak of ocher wool.
Before Bird of the Wood ever saw them, the priestesses placed them in a winnowing basket lined with blankets of featherwork and carried them to the bank of that same stream where Spring Wind had surprised her, and launching the basket in the water went away.
Her cloak, falling back a little, showed strand upon strand of filigreed silver beads at her throat, gleaming against a ground of ribbon and featherwork like a field of summer flowers.
But looking over his shoulder, Rhion could see, on the edge of the camp, a plump little woman in a dress scintillant with opals and featherwork come running out to embrace Tally and the sleeping child, and lead them toward the largest of the lighted pavilions.
Tally pulled the long featherwork shawl more closely about her shoulders and shivered.
Of embroideries, featherwork, and the like, so frequently mentioned by early travelers, hardly a trace is left.
Hung on the walls in museum-style shadow boxes were a precious tapa cloth from Tonga, a nineteenth-century Hawaiian quilt, and an intricate featherwork cloak of modern vintage.