“A life-sized stainless steel sculpture of a domestic hen. Features a highly textured, bead-welded body with smooth, layered metal wing feathers.”
The Domestic Hen (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a beloved staple of farmyards, smallholdings, and rural gardens. This life-sized sculpture elevates a common bird into a striking piece of metalwork, capturing the hen in a characteristically alert, inquisitive posture as it surveys the ground.
Crafted from stainless steel, this piece is a fantastic showcase of contrasting textures. To recreate the dense, fluffy plumage of the bird's breast and underbelly, I utilised a heavy bead-welding technique, giving the steel a rough, organic, and highly tactile surface. In sharp contrast, the wings and tail are built from smooth, individually shaped overlapping steel plates that beautifully represent the stiffer, more structured flight feathers. Complete with delicate details like the textured comb and wattle, the sculpture balances the visual weight of the metal on delicate, anatomically accurate feet.
