Current work in progress.
Current project:
Scissortails in flight attached to redbud branch. The redbud branch is made from brass tubeing and copper wire. The base is a manazita root from southern California. To achieve the color of the branch I used a special paint that I will cover later. These birds are almost life sized at 11 and 1/2 " beak to tail. The buds on the branches will be made from Kulis Karvet on copper wires. .
Scissortails in flight attached to redbud branch. The redbud branch is made from brass tubeing and copper wire. The base is a manazita root from southern California. To achieve the color of the branch I used a special paint that I will cover later. These birds are almost life sized at 11 and 1/2 " beak to tail. The buds on the branches will be made from Kulis Karvet on copper wires. .
Shaping the feathers for inserting
I decided to add 5 feather inserts to the tip of each wing. To form the feathers I used my belt sander and tappered the feathers down from 1/4" x 1/2" Tupelo. I backed up the strips to make sure the taper was smooth and consistant. It worked very well. Then I woodburned the feather detail. The body, wings and tail are also from tupelo. Tail is made up of 2 pieces making sure the grain ran the length of the tail feathers. They are split in the middle. A lot of work on this project and I have just gotten started.
Back to the drawing board or carving block?
Had to regroup on the inserts. See Blog. I now am doing 4 inserts, feathers with 5 feathers grouped together. Should finish these soon and finish up the two flying scissortails.