The last Woodfair of the season, outside in October! I decided that I would not have the energy to put up my marquee and that if I did it would come home wet, and would have to be dried out. So I booked a space in the big marquee and did fan bird carving demonstrations.
This Wood fair had a competition with three winners in three classes and so I entered all three classes and I won "Best small Piece", not jokes please. It is great to be recognised as one of the three of the best in the show. Below is the fan bird I entered, which is made of beech, an interesting wood as it curled a bit when I rived the wings, and as you can see it has made a lovely cup shape.
I met Owen Jones again, and at last managed to spend some quality time talking about fan birds and other stuff. He has been making small birds for some years now and said he must have made a couple of hundred. Owen make them with only a penknife and uses pine. I like them, they have a naive simplicity to them, and I like the shape of the body.
The birds are photographed on his oak swill baskets, so have a look at his web site
I am always interested in seeing other people's fan birds, so send me photos if you have ever made any, or seen any made by other people.
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Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteglad to see you had a good show and congratulations on your well deserved win! Lovely birds. I would have liked to be there but it clashed with two other shows that I do unfortunately. Very wise not to get the marquee wet, I have a wet lump of canvas now.
cheers
Mark
Hi Sean!
ReplyDeleteI really want to have a go at those fan bird when I get a chance. In the meantime I made some trees today almost by accident while draw-knifing some chair splats. Photo on my blog (as I can't seem to post one here) at: www.flyingshavings.wordpress.com
Richard
Richard, I love the trees, it is amazing what you can do with shaving a piece of wood. I assume you have seen the pictures of the German trees I posted on my blog a while ago.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a photo yet, but I make birds and cockerels using the same technique, I will try and remember to take some photos.
If you want to do a fan bird carving workshop in the early spring, I will be doing some, probably one day workshops. I will be posting my workshop dates soon.