Bird Wing Mechanisms

I have been looking at bird anatomy and how bird wings work as i am thinking about creating a bird puppet as part of FMP. I decided to started looking at how other peoples mechanics for wings to give me ideas of how i could recreate wings.

 

looking into how other people had created an wing mechanism was useful as I can now see how simply a wing mechanism can be created with out having to make it to complicated or using expensive materials.

 

 

Bird Anatomy

Wings

Skeleton 
All birds have the same basic plan, though different life styles have meant that they have evolved different variations on the central theme. Birds such as swans have more vertebrae in their necks than those like parrots who have very short necks. Swans have 25 vertebrae, parrots have 9. Necks are useful for getting your mouth to places you do not really want to take your whole body, like the bottom of a pond. They are also useful for turning your head, when your eyes are fixed deep in sockets, without having to turn your whole body. Most flightless birds, having no need of the large flight muscles, have therefore, no need of the large keel or sternum that flying birds have. The exception to this rule are penguins who effectively fly through the water with their modified wings and still need large muscles to power them.

Bird's inherited their basic skeleton from their reptilian ancestors. The constraints of flight however have meant that birds have had to modify it in several major ways. Flight means lifting the birds weight, so the first major consideration is reduction in weight. The lighter you are the easier it is to fly. The main ways birds have lost weight is through the loss of teeth and the large jaw bones needed to support teeth, the loss of nearly all the tail and reduction of the skull. Though a bird's major limb bones are hollow with internal struts for support, this makes them stronger not lighter; a bird's leg bones for example are often heavier than those of similar sized mammal or reptile.

http://www.life.illinois.edu/ib/461/External_Anatomy.pdf

How Birds Fly

As i am looking at creating a puppet of a bird for my FMP I started looking at the way birds fly.

Birds can achieve flight by the shape of there wings, as the way the wings are shapes makes the air move slowly under the creating low pressure and makes the air mover fast over the top of the wing creating high pressure and creating lift.

Crow

 

When i was looking around on the internet at puppet i came across a production called "crow" by the Handsping Puppet Company. I really like the way the smaller crow looks as it is very similar in size and looks. Something like this would work well for a prop of the golden bird in the two brothers. Unfortunately i couldn't find an information on the way that the puppets were made for the production so i have no information on the mechanics behind bird.  

Crow was an experimental mixture of puppetry with dance, charting the disconnected fragments of experience from the epic to the intimate contained in Hughes’ poems. The texts revolve around the experiences of a character called Crow who is sometimes a real crow, sometimes nearly a man, and sometimes an essence of life in a world full of death. The whole company worked with dance, puppetry and text to make a unique spectacle.
 

 

I want to create a puppet or prop for the bird from the two brothers story I think that the way that they have create the puppet for this production is really useful and has given me ideas for how I could possibly create a puppet if I were going to do a production. 

Prop Ideas

As i have now chosen the fairy tale that i am going to work from some sketches of the prop that could be used for a stage production of the tale. Focusing my work on one story work better as i only had to think about the elements that i could use from that story rather that having to remember several. The sketchers are okay but there is not much behind the designs.   

I then started to focus on the bird quickly sketching different species of birds that i could base the golden bird on which is in the story. I think that a dove or raven would work best for the bird as both are often used in storied and are slightly larger birds so could be seen easier when on stage.

The Two Brothers

This is a synopsis of the two brother a brothers Grimm fairy tale that i chose to be the focus of my work during FMP. I decided  to use this story as the is quite a lot going of in the story so i am not limiting what i  can produce during my project, i am also using it as there are quite a few animals in it so i can use the knowledge that i have learnt of the year during my FMP.

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A rich goldsmith and a poor broom maker were brothers. The broommaker had two identical twin sons. One day, the broommaker saw a golden bird in the woods, knocked off a feather, and sold it to his brother for a great sum. He pursued the bird again and found a golden lamp. A third time, he brought back the bird itself, and his brother, who knew its powers — that whoever ate its heart and liver would find a gold coin beneath his pillow every night — had his wife cook it. But his nephews came to the kitchen to beg, and when two bits fell from the bird, they ate them, and the gold coins appeared beneath their pillows.

The goldsmith told his brother that his sons were in league with the devil, and persuaded him to abandon them. A huntsman took them in and taught them his trade. Once they were grown, they begged his permission to seek their fortune. He was pleased, because they talked like brave huntsmen, and let them go, giving them a knife with directions that if they ever parted, they should stick it into a tree, and when one returned, he could see how his brother fared, because the blade's side would rust if it went ill with him.

On the way, they nearly shot a hare for hunger, but it begged for its life, offering to give them two young hares instead, so they let it go. The same happened with a fox, a wolf, a bear, and a lion. The young animals showed them a village where they could buy food. They parted ways, each one taking half the animals, and drove a knife into a tree where they parted.

The younger came to a town all hung in black, where a dragon had eaten every young maiden except the princess, who was to be given to it the next day. The huntsman climbed the dragon's hill and found three cups and a sword. He was unable to wield the sword until he had drunk from the cups.

The next morning, the princess was brought to the hill, and the king's marshal watched. The seven-headed dragon came and breathed fire, setting all the grass ablaze, but the animals trampled the flames out. The huntsman cut off six of its heads and its tail and had the animals tear it to bits. The princess distributed her necklace among the animals, and gave the huntsman her knife, with which he cut off the dragon's tongues. He was exhausted and told the lion to keep watch while he slept, but the lion was also exhausted, and told the bear to keep watch, and so on down to the hare, who had no one to tell to keep watch. The marshal cut off the huntsman's head and forced the princess to promise to say that he had rescued her.

The animals woke and would have killed the hare, but it said it knew of a root that would restore the huntsman, so they let it fetch it. The huntsman thought the princess must have killed him, to be rid of him, and wandered the world. A year later, he came back to the town and found it hung in red for the princess's wedding to the marshal. The huntsman bet with the innkeeper that he could get bread from the king's table, and sent the hare. The princess recognized it by the part of her necklace, and sent a loaf with it. The innkeeper would bet no more, but he sent the fox, wolf, bear, and lion for meat, vegetables, confectionery, and wine.

The king wondered at the animals, and the princess told him to send for their master. When he arrived at the castle, the seven dragon's heads were displayed, and the huntsman opened their mouth and asked where their tongues were. He produced the tongues, and the princess confirmed his story. The marshal was executed, and the huntsman and princess married.

One day, he hunted a white stag and ended up alone in the woods. An old woman begged to come near the fire, and asked him to strike his animals with a wand so they would not harm her. This turned them to stone, and so she was able to turn him to stone.

His brother found the knife all rusted on one side, and went in search of his brother. He was welcomed as the young king in the town, but put a sword in the bed between him and the princess. Hearing what his brother had been doing, he set out to the same woods and found the same witch, but refused to strike his animals. When he shot his gun at her, she was proof to lead, but he tore off three silver buttons and shot her. He made her restore his brother, his brother's animals, and many others.

The brothers went home, telling their tales. On hearing that his brother had been accepted as him and slept in his bed, the young king cut off his head, but repented of it. The hare brought the root again, and the brother was restored. They returned to the town, and the princess could recognize her husband by the necklace on his animals, and asked him why he had put the sword in the bed that night, revealing to him that his brother had been true

Full story: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/grimm/bl-grimm-2brothers.htm

More Fairy Tales

I have decided that it would be best to choose just one and focusing on that story to create props as if it were a play, so i have decided to find some more Grimm fairy tales that would work well as a stage production and then chose one of them.

The Girl Without Hands

A miller was offered wealth by the devil if the miller gave him what stood behind the mill. Thinking that it was an apple tree, the miller agreed, but it was his daughter. When three years had passed, the devil appeared, but the girl had kept herself sinless and her hands clean, and the devil was unable to take her. The devil threatened to take the father if he did not chop off the girl's hands, and she let him do so, but she wept on her arms' stumps, and they were so clean that the devil could not take her, so he had to give her up.

She set out into the world, despite her father's wealth. She saw a royal garden and wanted to eat some pears she saw there. An angel helped her. The pears were missed the next day, and the gardener told how she appeared. The king awaited her the next day and, when she came again, married her and made her hands out of silver. She gave birth to a son, and his mother sent news to the king, who had gone off to battle, but the messenger stopped along the way, and the devil got at the letter, changing it to say that she had given birth to a changeling. The king sent back that they should care for the child nonetheless, but the devil got at that letter too, and once again changed it, saying that they should kill the queen and the child and keep the queen's heart as proof.

The king's servant despaired, and, to produce the heart, killed a hind and sent the queen and her son out into the world to hide. The queen went into a forest, and an angel brought her to a hut, and helped her nurse her son.

The king returned to his castle, and they discovered the letters had been tampered with. The king set out to find his wife and child. After seven years, he found the hut, and lay down to sleep with a handkerchief to cover his face. His wife came out, and when the handkerchief fell, directed her son to put it back on. The child grew angry, since he had been told that the Father in heaven was man's true father, but no one on earth. The king got up to ask who they were, and she told him. He said that his wife had silver hands, but she had natural ones, to which she replied that God had given them back to her. Then she went to retrieve her silver hands that had fallen off and returned to show the king.

The Golden Bird

Every year, a king's apple tree is robbed of one golden apple during the night. He sets his sons to watch, and though the first two fall asleep, the youngest stays awake and sees that the thief is a golden bird. He tries to shoot it, but only knocks a feather off.

The feather is so valuable that the king decides he must have the bird. He sends his three sons, one after another, to capture the priceless golden bird. The sons each meet a talking fox, who gives them advice for their quest: to choose a bad inn over a brightly lit and merry one. The first two sons ignore the advice and, in the pleasant inn, abandon their quest.

The third son obeys the fox, so the fox advises him to take the bird in its wooden cage from the castle in which it lives, instead of putting it into the golden cage next to it. But he disobeys, and the golden bird rouses the castle, resulting in his capture. He is sent after the golden horse as a condition for sparing his life. The fox advises him to use a leather saddle rather than a golden one, but he fails again. He is sent after the princess from the golden castle. The fox advises him not to let her say farewell to her parents, but he disobeys, and the princess's father orders him to remove a hill as the price of his life.

The fox removes it, and then, as they set out, he advises the prince how to keep all the things he has won. It then asks the prince to shoot it and cut off its head. When the prince refuses, it warns him against buying gallowsflesh and sitting on the edge of wells.

He finds that his brothers, who have been carousing and living sinfully in the meantime, are to be hanged (on the gallows) and buys their liberty. They find out what he has done. When he sits on a well's edge, they push him in. They take the things and the princess and bring them to their father. However the bird, the horse, and the princess all grieve for the prince. The fox rescues the prince. When he returns to his father's castle dressed in a beggar's cloak, the bird, the horse, and the princess all recognize him as the man who won them, and become cheerful again. His brothers are put to death, and he marries the princess.

Finally, the third son cuts off the fox's head and feet at the creature's request. The fox is revealed to be a man, the brother of the princess.

The Two Brothers

A rich goldsmith and a poor broommaker were brothers. The broommaker had two identical twin sons. One day, the broommaker saw a golden bird in the woods, knocked off a feather, and sold it to his brother for a great sum. He pursued the bird again and found a golden lamp. A third time, he brought back the bird itself, and his brother, who knew its powers — that whoever ate its heart and liver would find a gold coin beneath his pillow every night — had his wife cook it. But his nephews came to the kitchen to beg, and when two bits fell from the bird, they ate them, and the gold coins appeared beneath their pillows.

The goldsmith told his brother that his sons were in league with the devil, and persuaded him to abandon them. A huntsman took them in and taught them his trade. Once they were grown, they begged his permission to seek their fortune. He was pleased, because they talked like brave huntsmen, and let them go, giving them a knife with directions that if they ever parted, they should stick it into a tree, and when one returned, he could see how his brother fared, because the blade's side would rust if it went ill with him.

On the way, they nearly shot a hare for hunger, but it begged for its life, offering to give them two young hares instead, so they let it go. The same happened with a fox, a wolf, a bear, and a lion. The young animals showed them a village where they could buy food. They parted ways, each one taking half the animals, and drove a knife into a tree where they parted.

The younger came to a town all hung in black, where a dragon had eaten every young maiden except the princess, who was to be given to it the next day. The huntsman climbed the dragon's hill and found three cups and a sword. He was unable to wield the sword until he had drunk from the cups.

The next morning, the princess was brought to the hill, and the king's marshal watched. The seven-headed dragon came and breathed fire, setting all the grass ablaze, but the animals trampled the flames out. The huntsman cut off six of its heads and its tail and had the animals tear it to bits. The princess distributed her necklace among the animals, and gave the huntsman her knife, with which he cut off the dragon's tongues. He was exhausted and told the lion to keep watch while he slept, but the lion was also exhausted, and told the bear to keep watch, and so on down to the hare, who had no one to tell to keep watch. The marshal cut off the huntsman's head and forced the princess to promise to say that he had rescued her.

The animals woke and would have killed the hare, but it said it knew of a root that would restore the huntsman, so they let it fetch it. The huntsman thought the princess must have killed him, to be rid of him, and wandered the world. A year later, he came back to the town and found it hung in red for the princess's wedding to the marshal. The huntsman bet with the innkeeper that he could get bread from the king's table, and sent the hare. The princess recognized it by the part of her necklace, and sent a loaf with it. The innkeeper would bet no more, but he sent the fox, wolf, bear, and lion for meat, vegetables, confectionery, and wine.

The king wondered at the animals, and the princess told him to send for their master. When he arrived at the castle, the seven dragon's heads were displayed, and the huntsman opened their mouth and asked where their tongues were. He produced the tongues, and the princess confirmed his story. The marshal was executed, and the huntsman and princess married.

One day, he hunted a white stag and ended up alone in the woods. An old woman begged to come near the fire, and asked him to strike his animals with a wand so they would not harm her. This turned them to stone, and so she was able to turn him to stone.

His brother found the knife all rusted on one side, and went in search of his brother. He was welcomed as the young king in the town, but put a sword in the bed between him and the princess. Hearing what his brother had been doing, he set out to the same woods and found the same witch, but refused to strike his animals. When he shot his gun at her, she was proof to lead, but he tore off three silver buttons and shot her. He made her restore his brother, his brother's animals, and many others.

The brothers went home, telling their tales. On hearing that his brother had been accepted as him and slept in his bed, the young king cut off his head, but repented of it. The hare brought the root again, and the brother was restored. They returned to the town, and the princess could recognize her husband by the necklace on his animals, and asked him why he had put the sword in the bed that night, revealing to him that his brother had been true