Welcome to Shaw Elementary School 1% for Art Project
Arthur Higgins, MFA, PO Box 499, Mosier, Oregon, 97040: emailoakrunstudios (@) gorge (dot) net
Shaw Birds Page 1
The birds play a secondary roll in this sculpture. I decided, after thinking about it for a few weeks, that the birds were to be accent elements with secondary jobs as: 1) references to nature, 2) references to the sun, and 3) references to Wasilla.

I started the birds after the scale mock-up was finished so I could plan just how many birds I was going to need. Then I had to decide which birds were to be included. I wanted them to be scale and after working on this for a while, it turned out the raven and magpie, very common birds in Wasilla, were too large. I also left out the eagle, all the water birds, owls, hawks and some really cool birds like the Northern Shrike or the greater Yellow Legs because they were visually domineering and would make the sculpture more about the birds than sun and light.

Perching birds were just right in size and I settled on the 30 Wilsons Warblers, 20 Robins, 20 Pine Grosbeaks, 30 White Crowned Sparrows, 30 Fox Sparrows, 30 redpolls and 30 Chickadees. This comes out to 190 and that will be enough to create some energy, sparkle, contrast, and color in the overall sculpture without being dominant.

I also discovered that coloring the birds with all the markings was too life like and directed attention from the sun because the detail made them too important. I have settled for just one or two distinguishing markings. In the case of the chickadee, for example, the black cap and chin will be all that is colored. This is actually what you actually see in nature. Most birds you see that are over 50 feet away are usually all grey. You only see markings when they are close or you are using binoculars.

For the medium I decided on using red cedar because it had a naturally dark color, was easy to shape, took paint well, was light weight, and would withstand the changes in humidity found in school settings.

The first thing I had to do was try out the technique and materials for the birds. I made up a few inches of fiberglassed wings and whittled on a piece of scrap redwood to see how it would work.

The trial looked promising so I made a more accurate chickadee, then painted it. The first time the paint was acrylic, but I didn't like that so I settled on artist's alkyd oils. It takes longer to dry, but the grain of the wood shows better.

The robin was a second try, just to make sure. It was the robin that made me decide that there was too much coloring which would interfere with the sun/light, clouds of the main sculpture.

The chickadee with only black markings seemed just right.

I made templates of all the birds out of untempered masonite.

Careful scale drawings were made for each of the birds. Then a tracing made of the master and that transferred to the template material and the templates cut out on a band saw. All the birds were nested on the wood to make maximum use of it. Old Growth red cedar is extremely rare and very hard to find, which also makes it expensive. The cedar boards were 14' long so they need to be cut into manageable lengths first.
The first step is to cut out the side profile. By the way, I put the bandsaw outside because a lot of dust is generated from this much cutting. The next step is to cut out the top profile, resulting a square bird shape. The third cut is to trim off the edges of the square. This reduces the amount of sanding which is the next step.
End Birds Part 1
Careful scale drawings were made for each of the birds. Then a tracing made of the master and that transferred to the template material and the templates cut out on a band saw. All the birds were nested on the wood to make maximum use of it. Old Growth red cedar is extremely rare and very hard to find, which also makes it expensive. The cedar boards were 14' long so they need to be cut into manageable lengths first.
The first step is to cut out the side profile. By the way, I put the bandsaw outside because a lot of dust is generated from this much cutting. The next step is to cut out the top profile, resulting a square bird shape. The third cut is to trim off the edges of the square. This reduces the amount of sanding which is the next step.
End Birds Part 1
WINGS
The wings were fairly easy to figure out. I have decided on using walnut veneer that has been stained and covered on both sides with half ounce fiberglass and resin. This technique came from one of my model airplanes which is a state of the art glider and has the balsa tail surfaces treated this way. The thin fiberglass cloth does not show, prevents the veneer from splitting and allows the wings to be cut with scissors.
I tried two different methods of binding the veneer. One was using water based polycrylic, the other fiberglass resin. The resin was much better because the polycrylic buckled the veneer and the glass delaminated.

Treated with this method, the veneer will never crack and yet is flexible and thin.

I coated the veneer with one layer of glass and let it dry overnight before adding glass to the other side. It was just easier to handle it this way. A template was used to outline the shape then cut out with scissors. Notches in the wing tips were made with a special notching tool. The last step was to dress the edges on the belt sander. The wing is now ready to be installed.