Category: fanbird

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Half hour challenge, Bodgers Ball

The competition I like best at the Bodgers Ball is the Half Hour Challenge. The brief is: to make anything you like from a billet of green wood in half an hour, and that makes a good demonstration at shows or events. Stuart King was judging this competition and we had to show him the billet of wood that we were to use. We all went back to our pitch to await the starting whistle. I had a very large crowd around me – 50 plus people.The first thing was to axe out a small plank of wood.

With this competition I think it is important to talk to your audience, explaining what you are doing, how and why, plus relating any appropriate, amusing anecdotes and experiences. I did see Stuart briefly in the audience and I would hope that the challenge is also judged on this aspect. Mark Allery  fed me one of his home made cookies soon into the competition, a big mistake as it shut me up  for a minute while I chewed away on a slightly dry and too large mouthful.

I jumped next onto the shaving horse and shaved the billet down to the proportions I wanted, and then onto the vice to carve the wing profile. When entering any competition, especially one watched live by others a certain amount of adrenaline kicks in. It is important not to rush as this is when accidents can happen. I take things slowly and stop often to explain and show what I am doing. A large crowd often helps me along with the demonstration, especially when they ask questions or interact with comments.

Now onto the riving of the feathers, this is the bit where everything can easily go wrong. I tend to speak less during these few minutes. Once the riving is complete then onto the cutting out and carving of the bird’s body. This can be the more boring bit for people and I tend to tell a few stories here about the history of fan birds.
My favourite bit is the interlocking and fanning out of the wing feathers. The bit of wood, by then,  looks like a bird.
Stick a pin in its head and attach some thread, hold up and receive applause.

Stroll down to the judges table and hand in the finished demonstration piece. I knew I had some stiff competition from James Pomfrey, also known as chainsawkid on the Bodgers forum and who made a bowl on the pole lathe.
To my great delight Stuart awarded me first prize.

I love the showmanship of these shorter demonstrations, and would like to develop the making of traditional greenwood items into a live multimedia show, for theatres and the like.  If and when this will happen I do not know. I would also like to develop a story to be told along with this demo. We are not just craftspeople when we demonstrate because we offer ourselves as a spectacle, what we say and do during this spectacle is up to us. Some demonstrators wait until they are asked a question before uttering any words, some of us talk about what we are doing as we go along. I happen to be a closet storyteller/ showman.

Many thanks to Nick Winter for sending me these photos.

By the way if any of you know any good stories about birds, bird creation myths etc, please let me know

If you would like me to demonstrate at your show or even,t then contact me for my fee.

If you would like to learn how to make fan birds then I am running a workshop on  Sept 24th/ 25th 2011.

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Traditional Russian toy

Traditional Russian toy

I have been selling and showing my work in Birdwood House gallery, a fantastic space right next to the market, in Totnes. I have been there for seven days. Shame I blew my van up on the setting up day, I spiked the ECU or in other words fried the computer that controls the engine. This is either going to be expensive or I may have to buy a new van.
Anthea who takes all the bookings for Birdwood, saw my fan birds and bought in this toy which was made for her by Austrian POWs in the second world war. I have seen many versions of this toy over the years but this is the first one I have seen with fan tails.

I have it in my workshop for repair as one of the chickens has lost most of its tail. I am really taken with this toy, especially as it was made by a young country man who was caught up in a war not of his making. It shows great skill, and is probably made with only a penknife. Anthea said that these young POWs were worked hard all day and only had time off in the evening. This is a fantastic example of folk art and I hope to make a copy soon.

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Fan birds, the Raven

The raven and my fan bird making bench.

The raven – the first fan bird that I designed and made to represent a particular species of bird. All the birds I have made so far have been a stylized representation of a generic bird. I like ravens, very intelligent birds, like most of the crow family. A bird for this time of year with Halloween coming up soon. Made in the same way as any other fan birds, but with a bigger belly and a big beak, and then stained black.

It is very easy to get into a rut and just make what you usually make. Changing a design can result in failures and potentially wasted time, it is easier to make what you know.
This raven is hopefully just the start of many different bird designs.

As I said in my last post, I played around with some beech, and the wing tips had this lovely graceful curve. What I did not say was that I found another piece of beech at the Cranbourne Chase Wood Fair and tried to make another one with the same effect, as a public demonstration. Everything was going really well until I started the final thinning of the hinge, and the fanning out of the feathers. They started falling out, and by the time I had completed the interlocking of the feathers I only had half of them left. I gave the bird a small shake and the remaining interlocked feathers came loose. I was left holding a birds body, a complete failure and in front of 20 people as well.
As I explained to my audience it was not a total failure, such failures often hold a few lessons. The beech I used previously was green but had been cut down and left for some time. The beech I had used in my demonstration was very green and had been cut recently. The conclusion is that beech needs to mellow before making fan birds, just like hazel hurdle makers do with their hazel, they cut it in the winter and leave it for a least six weeks before using it, as it splits and works better after it has stood for a bit. I have also always found that beech does not split straight and tends to run off. I have never used that much beech in my career and I am not an expert on it like oak and ash. Is it me or is beech a bit of a sod to split straight?

I have stopped using a shaving horse on which to carve my birds and have made a dedicated bench. It is essentially a post vice that stands up on its own owing to the fact it was made from an ash tree trunk that split into 3 branches. I used a single vice screw and some 3 x 4 inch sections of dried oak beam I have lying about the workshop. All my tools are to hand, hanging off pegs or slotted into holes drilled into the bench.

Seen above is another use for this bench, and it is to make kuksas. I am using a French clog makers hook knife to cut out the inside of the bowl. The great thing is that I can walk all around the bench. I am sure I will find many other uses for this bench in time.