Featherstone was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1936 and grew up in nearby Berlin. After graduating from the Worcester Art Museum's art school, in 1957, he was offered a job designing three-dimensional animals for Union Products, Inc. Over his years at Union Products, Featherstone sculpted over 750 different items, the first two of which were a girl with a water can and a boy with a dog. When Featherstone was asked in 1957 to sculpt a duck, he purchased one, which he named Charlie, and later released the bird in Coggshall Park. Later that year, he was asked to carve a flamingo. The now iconic pink flamingo went on sale in 1958, when the color pink was popular.