Spread Your Wings

Fresh out of the box and off the blocks is this commissioned piece for a friend who does Batala drumming. This fellah is simpler and subtler than some of the others I've done. Less fussy. The movement and character are still there in the dynamics of the wings on the down beat, the head pulling slightly back ready to throw his weight forward and the position of that foot pushing off from the can.

It took a while to find the balance point on this one, but like always, it's free standing, not fixed down. The bird is just resting on the can, and if you look carefully you can see that back foot rests on just a single claw - the sort of neat detailing trick I like to put in that people generally miss. The sort of details that when you notice, you think to yourself "Hang on a minute, how does that work because the centre of balance should be there!" But these are the sort of fine details that make the difference for me, between 'good enough' and 'nice!'

Another is the choice of can. If you've seen Batala Samba Reggae drummers perform, you'll know they can whip up a storm. Their colours are black and red triangles and stripes on a white ground, and some of the design and colours on this original Belton can neatly reflect that.

With all of these commissions, I do love it when someone takes a piece and turns it into something more personal. One of the most successful was one of the 'Tape Head' birds that I made a couple of years ago. For this, the punter had asked for a specific tape - a cassette of 'Nas - The Lost Tapes'. Between us we were searching for months for a copy, and then one arrived from the States. Brand new, still in its plastic wrapper, it had cost him £20. The idea of the 'Tape Heads' series is that the bird is literally chewing up the tape. One foot holding it down and tape pulled out and threaded through the birds beak. The thought of doing this to a brand new, 'vintage' tape freshly imported from the US added a frisson of excitement to the project! But the best was yet to come. 

On delivery of his bird, this punter had gone on Eb*y and scored himself an original '80's boombox and mounted the bird on top with the cassette in the open tape deck! Perfect! I was absolutely blown away by this guys' commitment. I want more of this sort of thing!

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