David came on my fan bird carving course earlier this year. He’d previously done some spoon carving but wanted to learn to carve fan birds to expand his skills after seeing me demonstrate fan bird carving at Elvaston Wood Festival in Derbyshire. Working from a fresh log, we split out blanks and then carved the feathers before riving and folding them out to form the wings.
In the afternoon, I plan the course so there is time for people to work at their own pace and consolidate what they’ve learned. It’s always lovely to see how the students help each other which also reinforces their understanding; here David and Richard are discussing the finer points of shaping the feather hinge.
During the day, David made the three fan birds pictured at the top of this post, each one a beautiful bird and an improvement on the last. He said he intends to carry on with the craft so I’m looking forward to seeing his future birds.
If you’d like to find out about my fan bird carving courses and learn this craft yourself, sign up to my newsletter for details as they are set. If you can’t make it to a course, you can also get instructions on how to carve fan birds and packs of prepared billets or simply buy some of my birds from my Etsy shop.
