Made by David Nelson
Hi Everyone! I made this sculpture as a centerpiece for a bird themed party and now it lives as a permanent fixture in the living room flying out of my bookshelf. I had a lot of fun making this, though it did have it’s challenges and some day in the future I hope to sand it down a little and repaint it more carefully.
The whole quetzal including tail feathers is just over 4ft long and it’s suspended by ultra thin 43lb test fishing line.
This sculpture was made using both regular and silky paper mache clay. The primary feathers and tail feathers all have their own wire supports – I used Jonni’s feather video as a reference. For the secondary feathers I cut thick cardstock into panels of feathers, without wiring, and applied the paper mache directly to it, creating the individual feather definition by molding it into the paper mache clay. Because of the quetzal’s size and far extending wings and feathers I had to use thick armature wire for support. In addition, it was very important to make sure the attachment of the nearly 3ft long tail feathers to the body armature was secure, as any wiggling could cause the paper mache to crack at the base.
For a hanging sculpture like this, before you get too far into the process you will want to carefully consider how your sculpture might hang when completed and firmly anchor the necessary points of attachment directly into the armature during an earlier phase of construction.
Is the Quetzal bird for sale or possibly a tutorial available on how to create it myself?
Hi Mar. I don’t know if David is still watching his post for comments. If not, you might be able to use the images in his article to make one of your own. It is beautiful, isn’t it? 🙂
I have never done PM before, however, I have become so curious and inspired over the holidays after visiting NYC and being so amazed at the flying geese inside the ground floor of Bergdorf Goodman. They are part of an installation designed by David Monn. Each year I create a wintery white xmas scene and would LOVE to be able to make a few of these in various states of flight. I’m trying to get all of my learning and research done before I start. This is the only in flight PM bird I have been about to see. I have so many questions…any advice for me??
Hi Jeffrey. I’ve never made a large sculpture of a bird in flight, but one of our readers submitted a post of sculptures that she created for a State Park visitors center in South Carolina. You can see Kelly’s post here. She also an article on her website that discusses her process here, but she doesn’t show her armatures. I assume that she uses a stiff wire that goes from the tip of one wing to the other, and then uses some aluminum artists’ mesh for the rest of the wings. You can find the recipe for the paper mache clay that she mentions here. To create an armature for the body of your birds, you might get some ideas from my older series about making a sculpture of a barn owl, starting here.
Simply amazing!
Really beautiful bird in flight!
Very nice work! Thank for sharing the process!
Wow – fantastic!
Thanks for sharing the process photos as well. Your careful planning during the creation of this piece definitely was worth it!
Wow – it’s beautiful, David. Those long, curving tail feathers are amazing – along with all the other details. Thanks for showing it to us! 🙂