גילוף עיטם לבן ראש Haliaeetus leucocephalus

מייק שליט, חבר ונגר ששולח ידו גם בגילוף ובעיטור, שלח לי כמה תמונות של עוף דורס שאותו גילף. העבודה מקסימה וחשבתי שכדאי לשתף בה את קוראי הבלוג שלי.
העיט הזה ידוע גם בשם "עיט קירח" או "עיט קירח אמריקאי" באנגלית הוא נקרא Bold Eagle והוא מופיע על אין סוף מגינים, סמלים ובולים בארה"ב. מייק גילף את הציפור מכמה עצים. הנה התיאור במילותיו של מייק:

I have been working in a new direction : to carve an eagle as it takes off into the sky.  For many years I have been fascinated by the  beauty of birds in flight and I wanted to capture at least a small part of what to me is one of Nature's miracles.   I knew it would be difficult but even then it was even harder than I had anticipated.  The core of the project is the wings, which involve many delicate curves in all directions, and - most of all - I had to  try to display the amazing beauty, flexibility and strength of the feathers which are an aerodynamic marvel in themselves.  I made many attempts over several months but each time the results came out looking like an airplane wing !

 

Eventually I came up with a wing with two sections : the leading one-third is a single piece of wood for each wing, with two rows of secondary feathers carved into it.The longer primary feathers are each carved separately (a lot of work !) and slotted into the front section.  The join between the two sections is hidden by the row of "feathers" carved into the trailing edge of the front section.

Another aim was to highlight the grain structure of the wood (which, by the way is simple pine, which has nice grain patterns but is a beast to carve).

The attached photographs show the final version, which I hope conveys the power and energy of the eagle as it takes off from the ground.