The heads of the birds are left uncarved so I don’t remove wood I will need. The finished surface of the piece is a major decision. Redwood is beautiful when sanded smooth and polished. But I didn’t want the viewer to mainly see the beautiful wood, I wanted them to see the birds and the story being told. So I decided that I wanted the effect of having a piece of driftwood I found that had these birds emerging. So I sandblasted the piece to bring out the grain patterns.

Then I carved the heads of the robins.