Kauai Rooster

This is a little rooster surveying "his" yard in Kauai, Hawaii. He stands about 140mm tall and is carved from basswood and painted with acrylic paints. Chickens throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa are descended from Red Junglefowl of SE Asia. These were taken to the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians sometime between 300-800 AD. These were cross-bred with chickens when Capt. Cook came to the Islands in 1778. Many chicken coops were blown apart by hurricane Iniki in 1992 and chickens quickly went feral across the island of Kauai where they thrive today. The original pattern was by Gary Batte. The background art is an art print of a Waimea cottage by Marionette and is available at https://www.etsy.com/listing/1746453...home_active_22

Claude

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Nice one Claude. I've got a fondness for chicken carving. I got my start with caring Chris Leubkeman's 'Rooster' out of forked twigs. 10 years later and I figure I've carved over 1500 of them. Good little market item.

I tried one of those twig roosters, and it turned out ok, but I had difficulty finding the right type of twig. I lived in a townhouse in Virginia at the time and didn't want to be seen out in the common green area cutting branches off trees... What type of wood do you prefer for them?

Claude

I've found that just about anything will work if its green. Some split better than others for the tail but most will work to one degree or another. Lubkeman himself prefers birch... just about any variety. Birch is not native in Australia so I don't get it much. I use a lot of poplar for teaching/practice wood so I have a lot of it on hand. I mostly use it for demonstrations where I give the resultant rooster away. They are a bit fragile if you want to sell them. Other woods like acacia wattle or sheoak are harder to carve but make for a more durable end product.