This project began in October of 2014. My challenge was to make an animal, larger than life, out of a material not typical to sculpture design. I spent a couple weeks studying different animals and ultimately decided that I'd like to create a bird. Something about the majestic qualities of a bird had me entranced. I narrowed my research down to 4 specific types of birds; King Fisher, Toucan, Blue Jay, and the Cock-a-too. During this time, I was studying the anatomical structures of these birds, their lifestyles and habitats, and defining physical features (plus the biological reasons for them).

In the next phase, I narrowed my research down to two of the birds; the Toucan and the Blue Jay. I drew both models on a larger grided paper (about 2ft by 3ft) to see what the end product would look like in scale. From there, I decided that I'd rather create the Blue Jay over the Toucan due to its interesting head shape and also its practicality (Toucans have very large beaks and that would make balance in my final sculpture quite difficult).

In this next phase, I began by building the bone structure of the bird in a heavy wire. I particularly was focusing where the joints were in order to ensure that the final bird would hold its own weight. After, I began to build the flesh of the bird with chicken wire. This material was very difficult to work with- there was definitely a learning curve. After, I spent time adding character to the bulk of the bird with wire feathers, black wire eyes, and detailing on the tail and feet. The final step was balancing the bird; it took extra attention in order to get the feet stable in order to hold the body. 

This bird was gifted to my lovely parents and now lives on their fireplace mantle. The final product is just over 2ft tall.