Creating the Javan Blue Banded Kingfisher

Kinga Aletto Author

03/31/2021 Added

8 Plays

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

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[00:00:01.980]Hello everyone, today I will be going
[00:00:04.069]over the process behind the creation of
[00:00:07.055]the Javan Blue Banded Kingfisher.
[00:00:09.003]First, I would like to discuss why I
[00:00:10.974]chose this bird as my subject matter.
[00:00:13.993]As a fisheries and wildlife major, with a
[00:00:16.035]focus on conservation biology, I wanted
[00:00:18.977]to pick a low profile endangered species
[00:00:21.075]such as the Hawaiian crow or the Javan
[00:00:23.008]Blue Banded Kingfisher. These species are
[00:00:25.947]all critically endangered, with very
[00:00:28.027]small populations, and very low coverage
[00:00:30.981]on their endangered status than species
[00:00:33.014]such as Giant Pandas or Malaysian Tiger.
[00:00:36.915]I eventually I decided on the Javan Blue
[00:00:40.736]Banded Kingfisher because of its beautiful
[00:00:42.536]coloring, very small population (around
[00:00:45.004]50-249 individuals), their shy and elusive
[00:00:47.437]behavior that makes photos hard to come by
[00:00:50.303]and its reasonable size (around 20cm and
[00:00:52.672]and fit in one hand). Once I had selected
[00:00:55.221]my species, I could begin the planning of
[00:00:57.937]my piece. I began my practice with life
[00:01:00.287]drawings. First, from the things in front
[00:01:02.187]of me, plants from the garden, then life
[00:01:04.538]size images of the Javan Kingfisher at
[00:01:06.606]different angles for reference while I
[00:01:09.040]build the piece.
[00:01:11.413]Because I did not have much previous
[00:01:13.806]experience with working with clay, I was
[00:01:16.322]given a series of tasks to practice these
[00:01:23.055]skills. This included carving plates with
[00:01:27.224]different designs and levels of
[00:01:32.473]difficulty to get a feel of working with
[00:01:34.673]clay. I had to paint these plates, as
[00:01:36.991]well as painting the Professor's own
[00:01:39.006]pieces to learn how ceramic underglazes
[00:01:42.007]are applied and understand how they will
[00:01:43.912]come out after the kiln. Once I practiced
[00:01:46.841]these different skill, I could begin
[00:01:48.858]practicing my hand building in preperation
[00:01:52.124]for the Javan Kingfisher. To do this, I
[00:01:55.007]chose a chick-a-dee songbird for refernce
[00:01:58.042]This helped me gain an understanding for
[00:02:00.959]how the bird's feathers looked on the main
[00:02:02.974]form in a 3-D space. This was relatively
[00:02:05.925]quick as the bird fit in my hand, and was
[00:02:08.875]later used as a test tile for the colors
[00:02:11.093]that would be used on the Javan Kingfisher
[00:02:20.993]Now that everything was prepared, I was
[00:02:23.192]ready to begin building the form of the
[00:02:24.943]Kingfisher. In order to make the piece not
[00:02:28.036]so heavy, I began by pinching a basic form
[00:02:29.994]including the head and main body, and kept
[00:02:33.027]the inside hollow with an air bubble
[00:02:35.043]inside. From there, I could start to add
[00:02:37.030]larger details, the start of the beak,
[00:02:39.028]tail, head shape, and wing form. Then
[00:02:44.995]after that, much of my time was used
[00:02:46.906]detailing individual feather. While
[00:02:49.951]doing this, I made some small changes to
[00:02:52.045]the wing shape, from completely closed to
[00:03:26.979]sightly open. Once I was finished with
[00:03:56.973]building the Kingfisher, I had to wait a
[00:03:58.903]couple of days to allow the clay to dry
[00:04:00.848]out before I could start to paint. When it
[00:04:02.888]was dry, I began painting. Using my
[00:04:05.022]earlier bird test for reference, I
[00:04:07.023]painted the Kingfisher, and made some
[00:04:09.008]slight changes. This included trying to
[00:04:10.942]add more detail to the feathers and soften
[00:04:14.058]the edges of the feathers, as I found the
[00:04:16.058]paint job on the chick-a-dee to be too
[00:04:18.091]harsh for a feather. The painting only
[00:04:22.275]took two days, and was ready to go in the
[00:04:25.926]kiln. The Kingfisher was fired at cone 6.
[00:04:29.207]Once in the kiln, the Kingfisher was
[00:04:31.943]complete. Here is the finished product,
[00:04:35.009]and I hope you enjoyed!

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Creating the Javan Blue Banded Kingfisher

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