Thread: White Bellied Sea Eagle

I had 1 board of Paulownia left over from my rocking horse project so I thought I would see what it like for carving fine detail. I often see these birds from the shed window so thought I'd have a go at something in the highly detailed decoy tradition.
The wood was pretty good for fine detail except on the end grain where almost every cut caused the grain to collapse. The burning of the feather detail was more problematic as the difference in density of summer and winter growth meant different rates of burning. This has led to the lines of the grain being visible in the finished item.
I can't say I enjoyed the painting part of the process but I will have another try in the future. The low density of the timber is a bonus in terms of the overall weight of the bird which is suspended from the ceiling in a window recess to give a reasonable impression of the bird gliding into the room.
Overall size isabout 1000mm x 400mm (half full size)