I Spent A Year Making This Life-Sized Peacock Sculpture One Feather At A Time

Here I am standing next to my one of a kind art piece. This photo really gives a sense of scale to the project

Here's a closer look showing the range of feathers in these beautiful birds! He is almost 7' tall

There are 28 tail feathers made from stainless steel. On the ground you find nearly 500 little leaves hand crafted from copper and brass

The orange flight feathers on the wings are hand carved from Padauk wood

The wing feathers are mostly made of brass and patinated using gun bluing for the brown colors

The brite green back feathers are enameled copper

There are 184 train feathers ranging from 12" to 5' long. I used stainless steel rod with thin gauge copper wire soldered to it to give it the light delicate look of real feathers

I made 170 cloisonné eye feathers to complete the train

The body is made of copper mesh with thin gauge sheet copper patinaed blue using ammonia and vinegar.

I disguised the supports by making them look like branches to give a natural look to the scene

I made the eyes in my glass studio

Here I am with all of the feathers that go into one wing (closest to me are the hand carved padauk wood)

I used the cloisonné technique for the eye feathers- there are 170 of them on the train

Here’s a look at the start of one leg, using scrap metal rods and rebar

The talons are made from steel rods

Here’s my “bald” peacock before I added the patina and other feathers!

Each feather on the back was cut from copper and then enameled

This little Long Eared Jerboa is protected the log and if you look closely, you will find his friend hiding in the dark. They are made from spoons

I repurposed a broken Mr. Heater into a hollow log. The grass is made from copper and the flowers are enameled