Heron #1

I used most of my garage time this weekend to work on a bunch of different stuff to prepare for my upcoming (May) show. I fixed my rabbit's head, finally cut and attached plates on a stegosaurus that has been on the back burner for months, and cleaned, wire-wheeled, and clear-coated the rabbit and the triceratops head. I also managed to finish my heron.

This one seemed to go quickly and I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. There are a few things I will do differently if I make another heron (I'm planning on selling this one). Here is the finished product without the final base and less the slight patina it will get by sitting outside for a while:

Heron #1.

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This one started as a pile of pieces that seemed like they'd quickly go together to make the basic shape. As often happens, though, I ended up using relatively little of the stuff in my heron pile.

he big white triangles are shelf brackets. I originally thought they'd make good foundations for the wings. I ended up using one to help form the interior of the back. I used the tips of both to make the beak.

In this photo, the body is make from the motor from a juicer and a bell, neither of which I ended up using. I did use most of the neck and head pieces 

To keep the weight down, I used the hood from a desk lamp (green), the shelf from a shower caddy, and some lightweight, circular pieces from a ceiling light to start building the body. I used the handles of butter knives (leftover from making the quarrelling roosters) to make the flight feathers. I formed the neck shape with a pair of metal brackets. The foundation of the head is some kind of spring-loaded clamp.

This photo shows the body after I added a couple of layers of metal (the lower one is made from old garden edging from my yard and the top one is sheet metal from a filing cabinet) to represent the wing features. The tail feathers are made from filing cabinet parts. I used a grill from an AC unit to make the stringy feathers that extend from the top of the back.

I made the neck almost entirely out of sheet metal, using little irregular pieces that I cut from a something that I'm sure must have originally been from Ikea.

This view shows the bird almost done. I used various odds and ends to give volume to the upper legs. The black semi-circles where the neck meets the body are from the base of a desk lamp. The black patch on the top of the head is from a lawnmower. I found the key plate that forms the center of the back in someone's garbage pile just a few days ago.

The finished head.

I added more sheet metal to give mid part of the neck the distinctive curvature of a heron neck. I used a mixture of bicycle spokes and the spring from a lawnmower starter to make the nuptial feathers on the neck.

One of the feet.

Top view.