New Copper Bird

Our Monday night meeting was one of our best meetings ever.

I love seeing the work of other people, and learning new things every time.

But I guess my favorite part is the challenge for the next meeting. Our challenge for next month is "Do something structural - something three-dimensional."

That's it - very broad, no size requirement, no rules. 

I love working with copper, and haven't done anything with it in a while, so my "structural" piece will be a wading bird with copper legs and copper colored fabrics.

I started by forming the metal feet, with a quick lesson from Bob. I then wrapped them in copper. I made a quick trip to the welding supply store, and bought some 1/8" copper rods for the legs.  I wrapped the  legs with copper wire for texture.

I started the bird's body with several layers of Timtex bonded to some  fast2fuse  heavyweight interfacing. 

I found some feathers on an old Thanksgiving centerpiece that I could cannabalize. I used those for the tail feathers.

I grabbed all the copper colored fabric I could find in my stash, cut and applied some feathers, and got a lot done in a short time.

This bird will be two-sided, and the feathers on each side are completely

 different from the other side, except for the tail feathers.

I still need to apply the eye and beak on each side, and glue the legs in place. I formed the Timtex and interfacing around the rods, so I can slip them in and glue them when all the fabric work is finished.

Although I consider this just a prototype for a free standing bird, I think it is turning out pretty well so far. I still have some embellishing to do, but it has gone together well, and has been total fun.