Falcon wings - Exploring bird flight in puppetry
Puppet Designer and Maker
(Personal Project)
Making a pair of mechanised bird wings for a hand-held and trigger mechanised puppet of a falcon. The wings were later turned into a full puppet for GIANT! (2023).
Combining AutoCAD, Laser-cutting and hands on making skills, the wings were maquetted and realized in 6 weeks. The aim was to replicate the movement of a birds wings, with the aims of making the feathers move as the wings opened and closed. Unfortunately the aim of making the feathers move wasn’t achieved due to complications at the later stages of the make.
The wings were later turned into the falcon and used in GIANT!
Process
Mechanism Designs
Mechanism Designs
Flap Mechanims design
Flap mechanism Design
Scale drawing of wing and feather lengths
First design of mechanism
Too thin - needed to make the mechanism wider and stronger
Lasercutting mechnisms
Second design including feather coverlet
'Open wing' of second design
CAD of mechanism pieces
Initial test of wing shape
Testing feather movement with elastic
First handle and mechanism - lasercut out of 3mm Ply
Assembling the peices for the wing flap mechanism
Trigger and handle maquette
Trigger and handle maquette
Trigger and handle maquette
Trigger and handle maquette
Trigger and handle maquette
Lasercutting new mechanism pieces
Weight test - ensuring that the feathers and wire were as light as possible
Weight test with thinner wire
Weight test for mountboard feathers
Testing feather movement with wrapped wire
Test with wrapped wire - too bendy!
Cutting out new feathers on the lasercutter
Laying out secondary feathers for attaching
CAD plans for laser cutting feathers - taken from measurements found of life-sized falcon feathers on Featherbase
Freshly lasercut feathers
Freshly lasercut feathers
Testing with Piano Wire instead of wrapped wire. Much lighter and stonger!
Primary feathers with cartridge paper. 18g!
Secondary weight with cartridge paper. 13g!
Working out stopper points
Painted base for feathers
Lasercutting feathers onto prepainted base
Cut feathers, ready to attach to wings!
Painting the back of the feathers
Painting backs of feathers and attaching to mechanism
Testing making the mechanism out of metal using aluminium.
Fully assembled feathers on first wing
