The stump and fungus for mounting this white-throated sparrow were fashioned from a 4x4x6 block of tupelo. The flowers were created from brass using a technique I learned from Jerry Painter. Circles are cut one-at-a-time by inserting a sheet of brass into a slot in the cutting block then driving the metal cylinder through the brass with a hammer. Each circle is shaped into petal with scissors then rounded with the spherical end of a glass cutter. A stem is soldered to each before painting. Cutting circles for this particular work held a unique challenge. When cutting my second circle, I didn’t whack the cylinder hard enough to cleanly cut the circle from the brass sheet and the partially cut circle became lodged between the cylinder and the metal block. My attempts to remove the cylinder made the situation worse. Spraying oil to loosen the blockage didn’t work nor did getting the metal to contract during a night in the freezer. I figured the staff at the local hardware store would know how to solve the problem, but they were as flummoxed as I was. I decided to sleep on it (not literally!). I woke up with new source of help - the welding shop that unbent my bird feeder poles after a bear “attack.” The welder started by whacking the stuck cylinder just like the hardware store guy and I had tried. It didn’t work. He thought a bit then rummaged in a drawer for a cylinder smaller than the stuck one. He centered his cylinder on the one stuck in my block which was centered under a metal drum the size of a gallon of milk. I stood behind a car in case the small cylinder slipped and became a missile as the welder slowly lowered the big drum. The soft clink of metal bouncing off the cement floor announced that the problem was solved. |
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ABOUT AUTHORJanice has been a bird carver since 2002. She carves basswood with knives and tupelo with power tools. Her favorite is which ever wood she has in her hands at the moment. Archives
April 2020
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