Linda's Exotic Bird Sculptures

Linda’s Exotic Bird Sculptures are unique adaptations of actual birds. They are hand-crafted and based on the field marks of actual birds.  The creative process starts with research collecting photos (some taken by Linda on her travels) and interesting facts of the bird’s habitats and behaviors.   They come from many countries of the world as there are beautiful interesting birds everywhere. It seems if a bird comes from an area away from our homes they are considered exotic!

How are the birds made?  The armature or basic structure is wire, foil and tape.  The wire forms into the bird’s basic shape, ifs filled with foil. A thin layer of polymer clay covers the shape (think of this as skin) and the  featherless bird is baked in an oven.  Linda forms the feathers by hand from polymer and individually applies them.  The polymer clay creates the colors with no paint involved.  The bird bakes again and as you can see this process takes many hours to complete.

The polymer is durable and water resistant.  The birds may be placed outside in a protected space keeping in mind that freezing temperature could cause cracks and extreme heat might soften the clay and cause sagging.

Each of Linda’s Exotic Bird sculptures is a unique creation that Linda bases on an actual bird!  She has created birds of many species including warblers, nuthatches, bluebirds, turacos, tanagers, pheasants, a barbet, birds of paradise and a violet roller.  Some of the birds live in Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, Arizona and California.  Seldom does Linda create more than one of a kind.