Creating the Javan Blue Banded Kingfisher

Kinga Aletto Author

08/05/2020 Added

46 Plays

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The process of creating the Javan Blue Banded Kingfisher, an endangered species, with clay

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[00:00:02.707]Hello everyone, today I will be going
[00:00:04.947]over the process behind the creation of
[00:00:07.345]the Javan Blue Banded Kingfisher.
[00:00:09.465]First, I would like to discuss why I
[00:00:11.615]chose this bird as my subject matter.
[00:00:14.295]As a Fisheries and Wildlife major, with a
[00:00:16.705]focus on conservation biology, I wanted
[00:00:19.155]to pick a low profile endangered species
[00:00:21.644]such as the Hawaiian crow or the Javan
[00:00:23.984]Blue Banded Kingfisher. These species are
[00:00:26.524]all critically endangered with very
[00:00:28.717]small populations, and very low coverage
[00:00:31.167]on their endangered status than species
[00:00:33.617]such as the Giant Panda or Malaysian Tiger.
[00:00:37.673]I eventually decided on the Javan Blue
[00:00:40.043]Banded Kingfisher because of its beautiful
[00:00:43.013]coloring, very small population (around
[00:00:45.713]50-249 individuals), their shy and elusive
[00:00:49.138]behavior that makes photos hard to come by
[00:00:53.438]and its reasonable size (about 20cm and
[00:00:55.908]can fit in one hand). Once I had selected
[00:00:58.448]my species, I could begin the planning of
[00:01:00.897]my piece. I began my practice with life
[00:01:03.287]drawings. First, from the things in front
[00:01:06.627]of me , plants from a garden, then life
[00:01:09.137]size images of the Javan Kingfisher at
[00:01:11.527]different angles for reference while I
[00:01:13.817]build the piece.
[00:01:21.436]Because I did not have much previous
[00:01:23.598]experience with working with clay, I was
[00:01:26.075]given a series of tasks to practice these
[00:01:28.515]skills. This included carving plates with
[00:01:30.865]different designs and levels of
[00:01:32.735]difficulty to get a feel of working with
[00:01:34.975]clay. I had to painting these plates, as
[00:01:37.235]well as painting the Professor's own
[00:01:39.575]pieces to learn how ceramic underglazes
[00:01:42.239]are applied and understand how they will
[00:01:44.999]come out after the kiln. Once I practiced
[00:01:47.729]these different skills, I could begin
[00:01:50.197]practicing my hand building in preparation
[00:01:52.767]for the Javan Kingfisher. To do this, I
[00:01:55.450]chose a chick-a-dee songbird for reference
[00:01:58.466]This helped my gain an understanding for
[00:02:01.081]how the bird's feathers looked on the main
[00:02:03.771]form in a 3-D Space. This was relatively
[00:02:06.351]quick as the bird fit in my hand, and was
[00:02:09.062]later used as a test tile for the colors
[00:02:11.541]that would be used on the Javan Kingfisher
[00:02:21.135]Now that everything was prepared, I was
[00:02:23.698]ready to begin building the form of the
[00:02:25.978]Kingfisher. In order to make the piece not
[00:02:28.238]so heavy, I began by pinching a basic form
[00:02:30.448]including the head and main body, and kept
[00:02:33.158]the inside hollow with an air bubble
[00:02:35.288]inside. From there, I could start to add
[00:02:37.698]larger details; the start of the beak,
[00:02:39.938]tail, head shape, and wing form. Then
[00:02:45.225]after that, much of my time was used
[00:02:47.948]detailing individual feathers. While
[00:02:50.275]doing this, I made some small changes to
[00:02:52.911]the wing shape, from completely closed to
[00:03:27.191]slightly open. Once I was finished with
[00:03:57.664]building the Kingfisher, I had to wait a
[00:03:59.464]couple of days to allow the clay to dry
[00:04:01.414]out before I could start to paint. When it
[00:04:03.474]was dry, I began painting. Using my
[00:04:05.424]earlier bird test for reference, I
[00:04:07.434]painted the Kingfisher, and made some
[00:04:09.914]slight changes. This included trying to
[00:04:11.584]add more detail to the feathers and soften
[00:04:14.134]the edges of the feathers, as I found the
[00:04:16.524]paint job on the chick-a-dee to be too
[00:04:18.884]harsh for a feather. The painting only
[00:04:22.524]took two days, and was ready to go in the
[00:04:26.154]kiln. The Kingfisher was fired at cone 6.
[00:04:29.880]Once done in the kiln, the Kingfisher was
[00:04:32.287]complete. Here is the finished product,
[00:04:35.155]and I hope you enjoyed!

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Creating the Javan Blue Banded Kingfisher

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