Teri Netter Art, LLC

03/14/2021

RTH Post #7 (Final post on this bird)

After dry fitting the Hummer on the Columbine stem, I decided the proportions between the open flower and the largest unopened bud were too large, they overshadowed the Hummer, so I cut the flowers off the brass stems and remade the flower and stem about 15% smaller. The sculpture looked more proportional.

From there, it was just a matter of figuring out the paint scheme for the Hummer. I didn't want to bore you with all the layers and accents I used, so I'm only posting a few pictures from the painting process.

The bird is now done, ready for the buyer to pick up tomorrow.

On to the next bird...

03/13/2021

RTH Post #6

As I mentioned in the previous post, I didn't like the columbine stem I had created, so I cut out the bud leaves for the new one out of brass shim and soldered the stems onto the main flower stem. It looked better, so I primed it with gesso paint, then applied the first coat of green paint. A Columbine plant has a base group of tri-leaves that stay clustered close to the ground. In the Spring, the flower stems grow up from the base cluster, so I tried to show that difference with two separate stems.

Once the stems and leaves had their preliminary coats, I soldered the toes, made of thin brass rod, onto the leg rod, then started shaping the tiny toes/feet. Hummingbirds cannot walk on their feet. They can perch, but if they are on a branch, they hop, using their wings to move. I had to wear 10x magnifiers on my glasses to be able to create the detail on the toes.

After dry fitting the stems onto the pedestal base, I shaped the 4 unopened Columbine buds, painted them, and fit them to the stems. From there it was time to finish the fully opened Columbine flower. After I painted to sepals and blades that were already attached, I created 27 stamen and pistils. I used fine piano wire for the pistils and formed tiny disks for the stamen that I adhered to each pistil. I then stuffed QuikWood epoxy into the open area between the blades and inserted the stamen/pistils, in groups of 3, into the epoxy and let it set overnight. After some touchup painting, I attached it to the stem.

More to follow...

03/11/2021

RTH Post #5

As I mentioned in the last post, I didn't like the head pose in the previous body, so I carved another body. After that, it was time to start burning feathers into the bird. However, these were going to be tiny, tiny feathers, so I needed to, of course, practice. Practice helps me find the right tools and tips to create the effect I want. If you look at the photo of the small wooden blocks, you'll see some of my practice strokes.

The only feathers that are burned are flights (wings and tail), head, and back, because they have a relatively stiff and coarse texture. The rest of the body is "stoned," which means I use a ceramic stone in the high speed tool to create a less defined barb structure on the feathers. I have attached a photo of a burning tip and a ceramic "stone" so you can see the tool tip difference.

In the previous post I mentioned the #10 Primary feathers on the wings having a different shape. The photo below shows the newly installed "fingers."

I had completely soldered the Columbine stem together and applied a coat of gesso primer on the brass, so everything was white. I "dry fit" the bird on it so I could check proportions and the overall configuration. I hated it! The stem was too long and the configuration of the bud stems was not pleasing to me, so I trashed that stem. I knew I had to make a new one. Darn it!

By this time, it was-mid Summer in Virginia, so I put all of my projects aside for about 4 months to focus on house and yard work. When I started up again in September, I had a fresh perspective and was motivated to finish the Hummer. I finished burning and stoning the bird, assembled all the pieces, then applied QuikWood to the transition areas between the tail and the coverts, and the wings to the body.

I've included a closeup of the "eye tufts" and the tiny disks near the base of the beak. I don't know what function the disks have, but they're part of the Hummer, so they had to be there.

More to follow...

03/10/2021

RTH Post #4

For perspective, the work I had done to this point on the Hummer has taken more than 6 months. Not because it was difficult, but because I was too well trained as a child to do my work first before I could play. Between home, animal, and yard responsibilities, my days are really filled. I am able to commit anywhere between 0-4 hours a day on my art. Darn!!! One would think that after 70 years I would have grown out of that. NOPE!

The other cause of my slow progress is the fact I am an "artist in training." I am having to discover solutions to the different challenges I encounter, then I practice until I feel confident to try it on the bird.

For instance, the Ruby Throat has VERY TINY feather tufts surrounding its eye ring. I created imitation "eyes" on a piece of wood. I used a magic marker to put black dots on the board, then used small drops of 5-minute epoxy to simulate 3mm eyes (see the pictures below). I tried different products (A&B Epoxy, QuikWood, Apoxie Sculpt) to create the tiny tufts. I decided QuikWood worked the best, so I used it on the bird. I also used QuikWood to create the tiny disks on opposite sides of the upper bill, near the nostrils. I have no idea what their purpose is, but they needed to be added.

I also modified the #10 primary on each wing to separate them from the rest of the wing. If you look at a lot of reference pictures, you will notice that the top feather is often separated, almost like a pointing feather. I was trying to recreate that effect. I shaped tiny slivers of holly, then attached them to the wings.

By the way, after I had added the feather tufts around the eye, I didn't like look (angle) of the bird's head relative to the body, so I carved another one (body #3) before continuing.

More to follow...

03/09/2021

RTH Post #3

Before doing any more work on the bird, I needed to create the habitat. I decided to create a sculpture that incorporated both an open Columbine flower and unopened buds at different stages of development. I shaped each of the five flower cups (don't know the actual names) out of tupelo wood. I also shaped the five sepals of tupelo. Once I had them carved, I glued them together with a 5-minute epoxy. I decided to leave the stamen and pistils for later.

I made leaf patterns from Columbine plants in my yard. Unfortunately, they were past their bloom, but the plant base leaves were still actively growing, so they gave me good reference for shape, stem connection, and colors. I traced the leaves onto very thin brass shim then cut them out with a scissors.

I soldered the stems onto the leaves, then the stems together to create their tri-leaf configuations. For the stems, I used different gauges of brass rod. One thing I love about art, it doesn't have rules like the IT business I worked in for 45 years. For instance, because I solder with a Little Torch using acetylene/oxygen, I occasionally accidentally melt holes in parts of the leaves. Not a problem. When It's time to paint the leaves, I paint the hole to look like insect damage. 😉

I then started creating the flower stem that would hold all the buds and the flower. I struggled here. The thickness of the brass rod prevented it from getting to sufficient heat for the solder to melt before the brass shim melted. So after wasting a lot of shim, I experimented with using QuikWood to attach the bud leaves. That worked well. I could then solder the bud stem onto the main stem.

More to come...

03/09/2021

RTH Post #2

I put the body and wings of the bird aside for a while so I could work on the tail. Creating the wings and tail as inserts into the body allows me to maneuver the pieces in my hand without as much fear of breaking pieces off, or creating unintentional damage with my power tools.

I rough shaped the tail, then created the slot in the body for it to fit into. I temporarily held the tail in place with hot glue (that's the brown goop at the base of the tail).

During that process, I figured out I didn't like the bird's body, so I carved another on, this time out of holly. After I shaped it, I decided I had made it too thin, so the tan areas on the body are where I supplemented it with a product called QuikWood. (That won't be the last body).

RTHs have a different tail feather configuration than most songbirds. They have 10, not 12 retrices (tail feathers), and the center pair is much wider and shorter than the remaining 8. It's most noticeable on the male, because the outer 8 feathers are quite dark, while the inner two are yellow/green.

03/09/2021

Ruby Throated Hummingbird ("RTH" from now on) post #1

I have put working on the Bald Eagle aside for awhile for multiple personal reasons. In the meantime, I recently completed a male RTH commission. The buyer only had three requirements: 1) a male with tail and wings open, 2) the habitat had to include an Eastern Red Columbine, and 3) the sculpture had to come apart for shipping (Darn!!!)

I made a few drawings so the buyer could select the pose that most appealed to her. From her selection, I made a clay model of the bird using mylar to create the wings and tail. I use mylar for all of my patterns. It allows me to look "through" the wings/tail to see how the pattern fits on all sides.

From the clay/mylar model, I created the patterns for each piece. I used holly for the wings and tail and tupelo for the body (at least for the FIRST versions of each piece!). I proceeded to shape each piece. The tricky part was creating pieces that were proportional to the size of the bird. I knew I wanted the wings to have a nice convex shape, because the wings flex during the bird's continual "figure 8" wing motion. I wanted this bird to just be completing his forward sweep.

My references were all pictures. I have never held a Hummer, so most all measurements were taken off the 3mm eye and an average 17mm culmen length. By the way, the culmen is the top of the beak measurement taken from the tip of the beak to the point where the beak meets the forehead (on songbirds).

The attached pictures are from my first patterns/effort.

10/19/2020

Bald Eagle Post #32

I decided to shave down the area on the back of the eagle that I had shaped to be the scapular feather groups. Scapulars are a group of feathers that, during flight, cover the gap between the wings and the body so the airfoil effect, in flight, is smooth. I decided the segments restricted the location and attitude of the secondaries, so cutting them off was the obvious solution.

So I will be carving the two scap (scapular) segments separately, then inserting them near the shoulder joint. It should be a good challenge as I want the feather group to naturally curve up as they fill the gap between the body and the secondary segments.

When I originally designed the pose, I created a 1/3 size eagle out of clay. On it, the angle between the primary and secondary segments was about 90 degrees. It would be a nice upstroke pose since the bird is taking off.

WELL! Lessons learned here! Because I had created the wing patterns, with feathers defined, with the expectation I would figure out the wrist connection later, I carved the primary wing segments with the feathers very open/extended. Turns out, that ornithologically, the layout/pattern was TOO open for a 90 degree wing angle. So, the primary wing segments will be much more vertical, more like 155 degrees. While it won't give me the original pose, I like the idea of the wings being more open. I think they will make the eagle look more impressive! Hmmmm, I just thought of something...how the heck am I going to TRANSPORT that bird to Minnesota!!??!??

To be continued...

10/17/2020

Bald Eagle Post #31

Yes, I'm still working on the eagle! Quite a few folks have asked me whether I'm still working on the sculpture. The answer is definitely "Yes," but there have been a lot of house and yard priorities that have, unfortunately, not allowed me much time to work on it.

Not having a bird in hand to reference, I have been very slowly removing the wood on the underside of the wing segments. I have now shaped each feather four times, and sanded them all down three times, because the wing segments were still too thick. I'm okay with that. Some folks have asked me why I don't just make the drastic depth cuts so I don't have to keep repeating areas. Well, on this bird, I would like to show some feather animation in the final shaping of the wings, which means I need to have wood to do that. How will it look? Who knows?!? 😉😅

In this post, I'm showing how the underlying wing bones (humerus, radius/ulna, and carpometacarpus (with digits)) define the extension and shape of the wing. If you think about a chicken wing, the area around the bones is full of muscle (meat), so it's much thicker there than where the wings are only feathers. I'm trying to create that shape difference.

To be continued...

05/26/2020

Bald Eagle Post #30

I received the titanium rods from the supplier, so I cut two lengths for each side of the Eagle to support the secondary wing segments in their connection to the body. When I carved the body, the block was just thick enough to allow me to include the upper part of the legs, the body, and the scapulars in the single piece, so I had to create the wings separately. I drilled holes into the base of the wing segments and into the body to create the connecting point. I have to admit, it was tricky.

As you look at the pictures, the head, body, wings, tail, legs, etc. everything looks chunky. That's because I could not do any final refinement on any of those areas until I had the wing placement established. I don't have a live, or even dead, Eagle, so my pattern and all of my measurements were based upon proportions. This is a 32" male Eagle, which is the average size for a male Bald Eagle in Minnesota. Once I established the length of the Eagle's beak (the culmen), I proportioned the rest of the side (length) measurements off that.

I used the width of the Eagle's beak from a casting to establish a width measurement that I used to create the head, body, and tail width and thickness.

The next challenge is to determine the angle of the primary wing segments in relation to the secondary segments. If you look at a much earlier post (I forget the number), I posted a picture of a bird's wing that shows you the difference between the primaries and secondaries. Their connection point is the "wrist," so there can be a lot of movement there. This eagle is taking off, so the wings will be ascending. The two segments will also be connected with titanium rods. What fun!

To be continued...

05/20/2020

Bald Eagle Post #29

It's been almost 3 months since I posted anything on my Bald Eagle. From the end of February until 14 March, I was traveling through India. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short because of the Corona Virus.

I returned home to a back yard that looked like a pasture! We didn't have a normal Winter in Virginia, so the weeds went crazy while I was gone. I couldn't feel good about ignoring chores to enjoy myself in my studio, so, since returning, I have spent most of my time outside, rebuilding much of the lawn, creating new flower and herb beds, and planting LOTS of perennials! I'm now caught up, so I am back in the studio.

I have spent the majority of my limited studio time reworking the underside of the secondary feather segments. One advantage to putting the Eagle aside while I traveled is that I was able to look at the Eagle with "new eyes" once I returned, I didn't like the layout of the underwing axillars, so I reshaped them. I think they look better. And, because I have never held a live Bald Eagle, or been able to measure wing muscle/bone thicknesses, I'm removing small amounts of wood at a time. I've re-cut each feather multiple times. So far, no break throughs, but I do have some VERY thin areas.

To be continued...

The light coming through the wing section. It's a bit thin there.

02/19/2020

Bald Eagle Post #28

Since I returned, I have been refining the wing segments for the Eagle. When I created the pattern, I kept extra wood at the wrist joint area because I didn't know how I was going to join the two sections, but I hope to solve that puzzle tomorrow.

Each wing segment started out weighing 8 pounds. The four segments now weigh anywhere from 15 ounces to 1.5 pounds...and they will be lighter before I finish.

The tips of the feathers are currently 3/8 to 1/4" thick. They will be MUCH thinner when I'm finished removing the wood. I know some of you are probably getting bored with my slow "sneak up on the final thickness" routine, but better to be slow than sorry.