See this in the shop at: bdglassdesigns.etsy.com 

An original design, when I sketched it out, I had no idea if it would work.  And.....This piece turned out way better than I had imagined! At 11.5 inches long, body depth of 3.25 inches, and an impressive wingspan of 15.5 inches wide. It was mostly an experiment to see if I could do it. 

A lot of the challenge was designing and building it in a way that will support the weight of the tail and wings. The copper foil and solder alone are not strong enough to support that weight. Normally I would add a thick copper strip called "Copper Re-Strip" to add support. But the shape of this doesn't allow for that. So.... to solve my problem I used a wire frame of tinned copper wire. 

After all the pieces were cut, ground, and foiled, I began the soldering and framing process. I soldered the tail first and included a tinned copper wire between the tail glass that extends 3 inches beyond the glass itself. Then I built and soldered the left wing and included a wire in-between the feathers and wing body that extended for 7 inches out the wing where it attaches to the body. Puzzled yet? I was too on whether this would work. 

I soldered the upper portion of the main body and ran the wire through the body where the wing attaches. I had half a bird body and one wing with a wing wire now extended from the body right where the other wing needed to be. So I then built the right wing around the wire attaching it directly to the body. Then it was time to attach the tail, running the tail wire between the finished upper body section and the newly attached lower body. I finished up by attaching the beak. which was fragile enough to need a support wire that runs down the crest of the head, onto the beak itself to provide reinforcement. 

Phew. I was pleased it held together and was stronger than I anticipated. I gave it a good cleaning to remove the flux, added some patina, and gave it a good wax and shine. I also attached a wire for easy hanging. 

This turned out so much better than I anticipated. I was expected to have a little experiment, and if it failed, add it to the pile of glass scrap. But I learned that I can do 3D art. And with a little problem solving, it can turn out beyond what I expect.