Post Modern Swamphen

This steel sculpture (backed by a peacock tail here) was created to a 1.5x scale with proportions taken from the measured bones of a roadkilled bird. The head is morphed more towards a seagull, and it stalks through the mud over the detritus of modernism (old bent universal beams are the grass sticking out of the mud) calling plaintively no doubt.

Galinula Victrix (the victorious swamphen)

The bird itself is 47 cm. tall and is created with a wire feed welder, filling in over an armature, the feathers are steel flat bar. Bronze copies pending.
The painting in the background is a section of an acrylic seaweed painting (printed with a piece of seaweed) on hardboard.

Swamp hen breastbone

This is a sterling silver pendant, made from a cast of the breast bone of a swamphen, a flightless Tasmanian rail - almost as it was picked up on the road. It is hardly recognizable as part of a bird - the normal keel that anchors the flight muscles has completely disappeared although they do use their wings while running its only in extremis. The stone is a 7 carat pear- shaped lab ruby, nearly perfect - if it was mined it might have been owned by the Shah of Iran or somesuch. But thanks to Chinese technology and Ebay you can own such a stone for about 5 bucks, and only your crystallographer can know for sure.