Give a Gift
Video content available for Gold Club members only. Join today and access this video now!
In this chapter from Del Herbert’s bird carving series, learn how to install and sculpt realistic eyes in a detailed shorebird carving. Del demonstrates how to prepare the eye sockets, select and position premium bird eyes, and use two-part epoxy to set and adjust the eyes for precise alignment and natural orientation. The lesson also covers sculpting the surrounding brow and eye groove to influence the bird’s expression and attitude, from peaceful and relaxed to alert and attentive. With careful shaping and final alignment checks, learn how small adjustments to the eyes can dramatically change the character and personality of a carved bird.
Transcript
In the last chapter, we rough carved the head. Here I’ve sanded it and added a little bit more detail to the bill and the eyes. Again, can see that when we look at it head on, can see both eyes, and when you look at the bird, the bird’s actually looking back at you.
That’s important because the bird’s eyes focus somewhat in front of the bill for feeding, and we want to portray that in our carving.
After I get the head to this point, I’ll take my rotary grinding tool with a quarter inch typhoon ball, and I’m going to grind out the wooden eyes.
I’m going to grind the hole large enough that the eye I prefer to use will fit into the hole.
And, it’s large enough that I can move the eye around, slightly forward and aft, or up or down, to get the eyes on both sides perfectly aligned.
Now, talking about eyes, there’s many eyes out there on the market, and many different price ranges.
I prefer to use flat backed eyes with small pupils.
I also pay a little bit more for my eyes.
I think it’s false economy to spend all of this time creating an artwork and save a dollar or two on a pair of eyes.
I like to use premium grade eyes in all my work.
Now, I set the eyes and the head with a two part epoxy. There are several types on the market. I prefer this EpoxySculpt.
The reason I prefer this is that it’s relatively easy to work and it has an extended working time.
As long as you keep working it, it will stay pliable.
When you stop working it, it takes about twelve hours to set up firmly.
Once it does, you can sand it, carve it, and rework it if necessary.
So here’s what we’re going to do.
For setting my eyes, I’ve created a tool. If we can zoom in on the tool, this is called a clay finishing tool, and you can buy it in most hobby stores.
One end of the tool comes with this shape metal piece on the end.
The other end comes with a knife blade which is totally useless.
So, I pull out the knife blade and I put a piece of number nine wire in here and I took a ball peen hammer and shaped it to the shape of a spoon.
And I can use this for working my epoxy.
Okay. What I’ll do is I’ll take my spoon and I’ll grab some epoxy, fill up my eye hole, with epoxy.
Now, a bird’s eyes always tight, turn in slightly, and they also tilt in toward the bottom.
So I’m going to fill my hole and leave the epoxy in about that attitude.
I’m going to take my eye, place it on the epoxy, And then I use a piece of a chopstick, which I’ve taken my quarter inch Typhoon ball and ground a concave surface on the end of the chopstick.
I put a Tupelo pommel on the other end so that I can exert quite a bit of pressure with it and have a lot of control over it. And I use a chopstick only because it’s very strong and just about the right size. Any dowel would work.
I can use this tool to push the eye in, tilt it down slightly and forward slightly until I get it in to the dimension I choose.
And I’m going to go ahead and cover the eye with my epoxy.
I can take the other end of my tool, and open up the eye.
I’ll go back and use a spoon and smooth it out.
And it helps to keep the surface of your spoon slightly damp while you’re doing this.
Okay. I’ll smooth it back out. Now I’ll go back in and I’ll open the eye up.
Okay, and I’ll keep working with this back and forth until I get the desired shape of the carving surrounding the eye.
We talked earlier about pose and attitude, and I talked about trying to give my birds a peaceful attitude.
Therefore, I exaggerate the oval of the eye. If I had a bird that I wanted to be alert, I might open the eye up, Make it more nearly round.
You can see that little bit has changed the attitude of my head.
Likewise, I can go back And smooth that back down, sculpt it back down.
I can accentuate the eye groove, and that will change the final appearance of my bird.
The beauty of this sculpting method is you can work with these eyes for an hour if you choose. It normally takes me fifteen-twenty minutes to get the eyes set the way I want it, to get the brows sculpted the way I want it, and the eye groove.
And then when I’m done, I always turn it head on and make sure that I can see both eyes from the front, as we talked about before in the carving.
Likewise, in a peaceful pose, you cannot see the eyes from the back of the head.