Starling 1.2 is our advanced model Starling 🙂 It was produced with attention to the aesthetics of the piece, incorporating fine wire art by Lewis Kaluzi, and a ‘spacey’ transparent body by Ralph Borland. Ralph designed and constructed the wire inner mechanisms that drive the wings, based on the ‘Scotch Yoke’ linkage system. For the starling’s voice, it uses a bird call circuit taken out of a cheap Chinese toy.
It started out powered by a Nokia phone battery, housed in half a knock-off Nokia phone body – later we replaced the phone battery with 3 x AAAs. The sculpture comes apart to allow easier access to the insides. Each time we make a piece, we got a chance to explore how to make them more robust and easily repairable – and we meet and work with more wire artists with different styles in the process.