Woodcarving of Swifts

When my daughter asked me to make her a trophy for her keep fit gymnasium, I came up with the idea of this pair of swifts in flight over the rooftops. Each swift comprises of eight separate pieces of Wenge wood glued together in such a way that the distinctive wood grain shows up a little like feathers and renders the sculpture less liable to split. Wenge is an African hardwood not previously used by me. It tends to blunt tools quickly but finishes well and is quite durable.

Two further pairs were made to be gifted to William and Matthew, I chose a slightly more swept-wing shape with a narrower chord. The bodies were also slimmed a little and set with glass bead eyes. The twin pairs each have one with wings raised and the other with wings drooped.

Each wing was chamfered and joined together with a centre section scarfed between them. The body is built up with two laminations below and one above the wings. Thin separate tail feather pieces were slotted in a saw cut made in the tail after the body was completed. Carving from one single piece would result in loss of strength and consume five times as much wood - prohibitively expensive! I finished by applying my own blend of beeswax and flax oil and mounting the pair onto a base of English Oak and Red Oak.

Stonehenge : Early Morgan Showroom

This monument was a vehicle showroom at a time when the problems of transporting very large and heavy objects had been newly solved.

Vehicle showroom par excellence

 Made by  skilled craftsmen from Malvern, large wooden carts capable of carrying in excess of 50 tons came into use, hauled by teams of Dartmoor ponies. Wood as seen today in the modern Morgan was used in vehicle production.  Yew, Oak and Ash carts carried the monumental stones for miles and once built, the showroom named Arbocartum  sold carts to the rest of Europe, generating huge wealth for the moguls of south west Britain.

A later derivative

The reason for the high arches was to accommodate the large size wheels, approximately twelve feet in diameter to cross uneven surfaces without sinking into soft ground, at a time when roads were mere trackways.

See report that prompted my post here:-

Origin-of-Stonehenge; The Independant

 Guardian report    Ancient Mecca on stilts