All 28 of the birds that are destined to weave bridges of friendship amongst our communities have been delivered and are already in the process becoming full bodied creatures.
It was an amazing project for me in many ways.
* Firstly, I was fortunate to get to know a heap more members of the Ku-Shed (Ku-ring-gai Community Shed). I have been a member for a couple of years, and have been able to skill up in picture framing, MIG welding and some of the cool wood-working equipment there even though I was only a seldom user of the space. This project has seen me attend almost every day for a couple of months and so I have met many experienced, knowledgeable and very helpful fellow shedders who offered great advice and were extremely supportive and enthusiastic as my birds grew and flew.
* Secondly, I learnt to use a cool tool at the shed - a small scale manual steel bender (compared with the the huge industrial strength equipment I have previously used at TAFE). Without it, I would have struggled to get the beautiful lines for the birds out of the steel rod I was using.
* Finally, the constant practice and daily routine meant that my work flow and efficiency improved incredibly and the last batch of birds bent, welded and finished themselves in nearly no time at all.
So here are the "Before" photos of all 28 birds, in their finished metal state before being covered with any woven feathers or skin at all....
It was an amazing project for me in many ways.
* Firstly, I was fortunate to get to know a heap more members of the Ku-Shed (Ku-ring-gai Community Shed). I have been a member for a couple of years, and have been able to skill up in picture framing, MIG welding and some of the cool wood-working equipment there even though I was only a seldom user of the space. This project has seen me attend almost every day for a couple of months and so I have met many experienced, knowledgeable and very helpful fellow shedders who offered great advice and were extremely supportive and enthusiastic as my birds grew and flew.
* Secondly, I learnt to use a cool tool at the shed - a small scale manual steel bender (compared with the the huge industrial strength equipment I have previously used at TAFE). Without it, I would have struggled to get the beautiful lines for the birds out of the steel rod I was using.
* Finally, the constant practice and daily routine meant that my work flow and efficiency improved incredibly and the last batch of birds bent, welded and finished themselves in nearly no time at all.
So here are the "Before" photos of all 28 birds, in their finished metal state before being covered with any woven feathers or skin at all....
So many benefits to creating these birds...
But the best bit...
is that the Brookvale Curl Curl Scout group Cubs section have adopted one of the pelicans and will be adding their feathers this week at their meeting. Thanks to Ann and her fellow Cub Scout Leaders for making this possible and helping to plan for the night of Weaving. This means that the Cub Scouts are another community group contributing to the Weaving Bridges Project this year (part of the Guringai Festival) and they can go to see their adopted pelican with the rest of the bird life that will be on display during NAIDOC week at the Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club, Bridge Rd Manly. The birds will be launched on the Stuart Somerville bridge on July 7th, 10am-12noon. You can keep up to date with the project through the Weaving Bridges Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/Weavingbridgesproject) or the Manly Environment Centre (http://www.mec.org.au/whats-on).