My Take on the Beautiful Barbet Bird

When I went to Africa among the many animals I fell in love with was the Barbet - a most unusual patterned bird.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-and-yellow_barbet   There are several kinds of Barbets.

This is my take on the Barbet, a wearer of many patterns and colors, blue legs and feet and attention seeking.

Making the Bird That Flew Out of the Pillow (see previous post), I just had to make another bird.  This time I took some photos of the process to share with you.

Materials: steel wire, pliers, wire cutters, Ultra-lite clay, aluminum foil, polymer clay (solid colors and old canes)

Taking the steel wire and forming the bird head, body, legs and feet was the most difficult part of the process.  Figuring out the scale, the type of bird shape, how to attach the legs and form the feet definitely took the most time.  It was also the most essential part.

Starting the wire form

The next step was filling the body with foil and using 28 g wire to secure it in place.  

This was the first time I used Sculpey Ulta-lite clay and I found it light in weight, easy to manipulate.  The bird body took shape. The Ultra-lite bakes at about the same temperature as polymer and cures before I put on the polymer layer.

Getting the patterns and color palette sorted and organized is important for the end result.  When using old canes I was careful to have enough of the pattern.  I did not want to have to make new canes to match the old ones. I divided the spaces (wings, neck, body etc and began placing a thin layer of polymer canes.  I found this a great way to use some of my old canes.  (Those are the small logs of  polymer that have the same pattern running through no matter where you cut it.)  This is where combining colors and patterns started to bring the bird to life! 

Dividing the space

Choosing colors and patterns

I cured the bird in parts to make it easier to handle.  First the body and  head outline, then the wings, and last the beak,the legs and feet.  This bird was almost too large for my oven and ended of on the side in baking soda dish for baking.  The baking soda gives a rounded or unusual shape support and does not hurt the clay.  A tent of foil covered the bird each time it was baked.

Getting the bird to sit or stand in a stable position will be something I will continue to work with.  At this point I seem to need the tail to become the 3rd leg in the tripod.  Before I put the polymer on the form, the bird was standing nicely.  After the tail went on the weight shifted and became a  part of the stability solution.   

My Barbet

The finished bird makes me smile and I think I will be making more of some kind of bird for my aviary.

I hope you enjoyed this adventure.