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.
 I shapped a feather on each end of piece to make a hand hold and later cut to size.  I used brass tubing in 3 sizes and copper wire to create the redbud branch. |
 Checking for proper fit Moving right along on this project
Well almost there. I now have the 20 feather inserts ready, finished inserting the toes and burned the slot for the feather inserts in the wing tips. I used Kulis to feather out the legs over the toes. Eyes are in place and textured. Now to tackle inserting the feathers. Update Kulis Karvet is no longer available.I now use Apoxi from the Woodcarft Shop.
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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.
