Today is my husband's birthday. As we have had a lot of pleasure this year, feeding and watching the birds in our garden, I thought I would get him a bird sculpture. I chose a delicate wire robin crafted by Bridget Baker, who is a guest artist in the One Craft Gallery until the end of April. She makes her minimalist animal sculptures from galvanised wire, which is then painted with enamel paints. Having studied zoology at university she is used to acute observation and works from her drawings and photographs. Her birds look realistic, unlike mine - as illustrated by the pen and ink doodles on the birthday card I made to go with his present!
Also in this picture is a wren carved in elm by Colin Clements, who is an Honorary Life Member of the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen. It is mounted on wood from Somerset bog oak which grew near North Petherton and has survived for over three centuries between 2976 B.C. and 2653 B.C. It was bought as another birthday present some years ago. There a number of handcrafted birds around our house of all different types, mostly naive and ethnic. Some I have drawn and they appear occasionally in my collages or are used as inspiration.
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