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Lori Corbett

DEMONSTRATION

CARVING THE RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD
PART TWO

By LORI CORBETT

I mentioned in Part One of my rufous hummingbird demonstration (Fall 2008) that I had a couple reasons for putting the bird in a willow branch. First, I wanted to avoid the “beak-in-flower” pose that’s so common with hummingbird sculptures. Second, the bird has a lot of green on its head, so I thought it would work well with the green of the willow leaves, while the brighter rufous and orange of the body would play well against the willow’s colors. The shape of the hummingbird itself resembles the shape of the willow leaves. As you’ll see in the construction of the branch, I repeated the overall shape of a willow leaf as much as possible, both in the general shape of the branch, and the negative space between the branches. The method for constructing the weeping willow leaves and branches will apply to nearly any species of leafy tree/shrub. The obvious modifications would be leaf shape and detail and bark.

Read the rest of this article in Wildfowl Carving Magazine's Winter 2010 issue!