They are huge birds. As long as 25 inches in length and as much as 4.4 pounds. A lot bigger then a crow.
The inspiration for the miniature was actually Pepper's Gothic dollhouse. https://mitchymoominiatures.blogspot.com/ I
wanted to make her something for it. She has received it now so I am not
spoiling the surprise.
I had no idea how she wanted to decorate it so that
made making something for the interior difficult. Then it suddenly struck me
that a raven might look right sitting somewhere on the exterior. Old manor
houses also seem to have a lot of taxidermy around he might even be used like
that.
I had ordered a lot of black turkey feathers for this project so I made the one shown here. It is very difficult to photograph black! There isn't any white lint on the bird, I had to lighten these a bit so you could see them. Otherwise they would have looked like a silhouette. He is jet black!
I cut his flock out of black silk embroidery floss. He was sculpted out of polymer clay. I only used the tips of the turkey feathers to cut down.
No color tweaking below. Here he isn't grayed from lightening the photo.
Gorgeous! He'll fit right in on Halloween.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sheila.
DeleteStunning work! The sculpt, flock and feathers are perfect.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nancy. He was fun to make. Quite messy I must say, with bits of cut feathers escaping into the air. ;-)
DeleteWow, Catherine, I am impressed! What a gorgeous bird and an awesome gift! You are an inspiration to me! "Someday" I hope to make birds with feathers... rather than just paint. Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteThank you Betsy.
DeleteYou should give it a go. It isn't difficult. You can find all the feather you will need in ETSY. Stay away from the chicken ones, they are much too soft to cut. They dye turkey feathers into lots of colors.
Oh...my...word!!!! Catherine, he is fabulous!!! I think you have the best imagination ever, it is one thing thinking up these ideas and another being able to put those ideas into reality. Fabulous!!!!! X
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda! ;-)
DeleteI really should have posted one of the pictures of him as black as he really is. Now that I have seen these photos on my IPad, he looks a bit ratty all lightened up. I might just add another picture to this post.
No es que me gusten los cuervos , pero este es fabuloso.
ReplyDelete¡Gracias!
ReplyDeleteBueno, estás de suerte porque este no es un cuervo!
Delete
The new (last) photo looks amazing.....! X
ReplyDeleteIt shows how dark he really is. :-)
DeleteWow! He's beautiful. Lucky Pepper.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It was fun to make it for her.
DeleteHey Pepper "Tis some visitor tapping on your chamber door"
ReplyDeleteYep! It's a creepy poem. ;-)
DeleteBrilliant Catherine - if your hand wasn't there you would think the Raven was real.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rosemary.
DeleteAmazing work! He is absolutely stunning!
ReplyDeleteThank you! ;-)
DeleteIt is a Magnificent Mini Raven which you've made for Pepper, Catherine!
ReplyDeleteAND I think that it is an Ideal choice for a Gothic Manor, so once it gets settled in, please tell it to send for ALL of its NOISY raven relatives residing here in my trees! :(
elizabeth ;D
Thank you Elizabeth.
DeleteWOW! you have Raven's living in you garden. I know very well how noisy some birds can be. ;-(
Well I was WRONG! After I went and looked it up, what I have is a large family of noisy crows although there are Rural Ravens common to British Columbia, it is the City Crows which are making all of the noise.
DeleteAt dusk there is a RIVER of nearly 6000 of these Black birds which all go to roost at night in one particular part of the suburbs. You can set your watch by them as they flood the skies. I found a link which will told me more about them which I found interesting as well as enlightening, which I wouldn't have researched if not for your reply. ;D
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/Burnaby+home+6000+crows+every+night/9085538/story.html
WOW! What a story. Crows & ravens are in competition for who gets the Creepy Crown! I have no doubt that a huge bunch would be a giant PITA. If you get my meaning. ;-)
DeleteHello Catherine,
ReplyDeleteHe is just stunning. I am always impressed by your work, but this is incredible. Well done!
Big hug,
Giac
Thank you Giac. It was a lot of fun to make too.
DeleteO well done, he is beautiful! I love raven, they're not common here at all. I've only seen one in my area once and yes, it was huge! It is good that you've put him on the chair seat, to get a bit of perspective as to his size. In your hand it still looks small ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe Poe line from the poem was painted on the wall of my English class in school, along with other text, as decorative band just below the ceiling. I can't remember the other text, only 'Quoth the Raven "Nevermore" '. I always say it to the crows in my garden, but they're not impressed. Maybe because they're crows ;-).
You've got a great eye Catherine. Beautiful work.
Thank you Josje.
ReplyDeleteThe only difference I could find between the crows and the ravens was the size. Other than that they look identical to me. They both can learn to talk. I had a crow when I was in grammar school.
What a great way to decorate an English class room! I had not read Poe's poem in many years. Curious, I read it again when I started this project. Brrrrrrr
Yes,much bigger. And I would say compared to the crows we get here, the raven's beak is bigger and more curved, but that may be different with crows from your area. I mostly get black crows, jackdaws, magpies and jays in my garden. And other birds of course.
DeleteThey are very clever. My mother always told us the story of a man in her neighborhood (Rotterdam, WWII ) who had a crow and taught it to say 'rotmof' which means as much as bloody krauts. It got shot by the Germans for that.
But wait, you had a crow? As pet?
That story your mother told you was amazing, though it had a rather sad ending for the poor crow.
DeleteYes... We had a crow when I was growing up. My mother brought him home injured. Happily he fully recovered. My father build him a huge cage. He lived on our porch (which had jalousie windows) and stove heat in the winter. The floor was stone so clean up was easy.
very realistic!
ReplyDeleteThank you Claude.
DeleteWow he is perfect! I'm always interested to see the "in progress". Thank you for adding the before feathers shot. Black is so hard to photograph and you did a great job of it. As well as the great job creating him :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHe is gorgeous! :D
ReplyDeleteil est magnifique ! j 'aime les corbeaux .
ReplyDeleteMerci Catherine
ReplyDelete