Orioles and Oranges

It all starts with a simple drawn pattern.

The pattern is transferred to white pine stock and cut out with a bandsaw.

The heads are then attached to the bodies in interesting poses.

They are then cut into 8 side sides and then 16 sides with a simple knife.

Ready to be sanded smooth.

Wings and tail feathers are fashioned from tinplate. This metal came from an early 1950s pretzel tin.

With a hammer the wings and tails are beat to shape.

Bodies sanded and underpainted with tails attached. The undersides are left unpainted for interest.

I’ve been out of the studio for the last few weeks. We had an illness in the family that came before carving and puttering. Health has improved and I was able to spend quite a few hours at my bench working on a trio of Baltimore orioles on orange halves. Click on photos for captions.

One of these is sold. The others will be available this week.

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American Redstart

Yesterday I attempted to post this from my new iPad.  I failed.  There is a learning curved and importing images is much more difficult that it should be.  I’ll get it worked out.

At the Indiana Artisan Marketplace I had a copy of Frank Chapman’s Bird-Life in my display.  The book, an early informal color illustrated bird guide,  features wonderful color plates by noted bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuente.  The cover features a multi-color typeset image of an American Redstart.  This print is quite striking.

I had carved a redstart, based on this illustration, that was offered for sale at the show.  I was demonstrating carving and painting throughout the show.  I was itching to do some metalwork and my eye fell on the redstart carving.  I took the piece around the corner to my demonstration shop, cut and shaped a pair of wings from a lithographed tinplate cigar box and re-created the redstart.

Here ’tis!

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