Rock-Dodo

After my last instructable about fake fossils on left over mosaic stones, i still had plenty of pieces of rock left over.Where there is plenty material, there should be an idea to use. So here are some decorative "stone age" Dodo's

What you will need to copy me:

• some copper installation wire
• stones ( e.g. Flooring mosaic mats)
• pliers
• a utility knife
• soldering iron

The soldering tools are a bit optional. You can do without although the result will be more vulnerable, and the bird might lose a stone now and again. Glue is another option but it will not easy to prevent stains

Cut off a piece of wire. As each bird is made of one length of wire, be sure not to make it too short. One meter, 3,5 feet will do for most birds. With your utility knife peel one side of the plastic isolation away. After that it should be easy to peal the rest of the plastic off.

Find the middle of your piece of wire. Bend it in a sharp U shape fitting around a stone. Before putting the stone in, wrap the ends round a pencil to create two loops representing the eyes

Put a piece of stone in the U shape. On the under side of the head bend the upper wire down, and the lower wire up. See picture. Solder the two wires together at this point. You could do without soldering, but chanches are the stone will drop out at some point.

There is no wrong or wright way to bend the wire over the body. The less wire used, the more attractive the result will be, but make sure you secure the body stone in place. See the last photo for variations. Whenever the wires cross it's wise to solder, but strictly speaking not necessary. Bend the legs downward and for the toes start with a shap angle forward.

To create birds feet with three toes forward and one back, follow these steps. It looks like a fairly complicated list of zig-zags, but it in quite easy in fact

• First bend the wire forward, as shown in the body step of this instructable
• At the end of the forward toe bend it backward
• At the end of the back toe bend it forward, the leg should be in the middle.
• At the second forward toe bend the wire again to the back
• At the leg bend it forward
• At the third forward toe back again. If you run out of wire skip this step.
• Cut off the access.

Bend all toes slightly down so the feet are a little convex ( round). Find the right position for legs and feet to keep the bird upright. Make friends!