Building a wooden cow!!

[Froggy]

No I'm not kidding :shock:
I live in a rural part of France and one of the small villages here is very well know as it has several concrete sheep dotted around the village. It's quite amusing and it's put the village on the map. Today I was approached by the president of aclub that I am a member of and asked if I was up for making some life size wooden cows!!! They would be placed on roundabouts. I admitted I wouldn't know where to start, but agreed to look into it.
Is there anyone out there who has done anything like this before or who could point me in the right direction of some info?
Or any udder suggestions #-o #-o

 

[Cottonwood]

I'd be inclined to make or obtain a maquette sized model, and scale it up to life size or even larger.
I suppose a lot depends on how realistic or abstract you want the sculpture to appear, wether a simple angular type form, or more "realistic"
Carving from solid is no way going to be easy if your not used to carving. Might be possible to assemble the form from joined boards?
Do they have to be fully 3 dimensional? You could do an amazing low relief type of thing

 

[marcros]

Chainsaw carving?

There was an article in a magazine somewhere I was waiting where they had created life sized deer, sheep, pigs etc from woven willow. There were no construction details- I assume a willow or wire framework.

 

[Froggy]

Hi Cottonwood,

No I'm not a carver so that is out of the question. I was thinking about possibly creating a 2D template and cutting out 2 of them and joining them with some noggins. That would be within my capabilities, but not sure if that's what they are looking for. If I could have a few ideas to back to them with it would be better.

 

[Froggy]

Marcros - I was at a theme park with a zoo over the summer holidays and they had some lovely tree carvings of animals there, but unfortunately a bit beyond my capabilities.

 

[onlinename]

my first inclination would be to get a 3d model of the cow. what pose it will be in, how large exactly etc.
that should then give you an idea of how large sheet materials or solid ones you may need.

You could probably make it like they make boats with interior ribs etc.. no?

 

[Froggy]

I suppose one of the questions I have to ask is how many they want. If it's just one or two I could consider 3D life like cows but any more than that will probably have to be 2D from a template.

 

[thick_mike]

You could make something like this easily...

http://www.ziggityzoom.com/activity/cardboard-cow

 

[thick_mike]

I live near Milton Keynes which is famous for it's concrete cows...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2OAhgSXmY...AC1g/HrIy1fYAxrI/s1600/Concrete_Cow_Photo.jpg

They get repainted as skeletons at Halloween sometimes...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-Halloween-makeover-look-like-skeletons.html

 

[marcros]

Could the scrolls sawers help? Marks reindeers look pretty cool if you could scale them up.

Something along the lines of http://www.housetohome.co.uk/product-id ... the-best/3 is an idea. The design work could be a killer but once you had a template it would be easy to cut on a bandsaw.

 

[dickm]

If you are going for 3D realism, then some of the ideas used by rocking horse makers might work, but on a large scale
(unless you can persuade them that they are Dexters!)
(for those not versed in cattle breeds, Dexters are a slightly miniaturised and skinnier version of an Aberdeen Angus)

 

[Cottonwood]

You could go to a sign maker (one who has machinery to printo onto vinyl) and get prints of cows. You could use a photographic source or something drawn or painted, then apply the vinyl to a metal or plastic or wooden substate, cut the profiles out, then set them up in a "herd" Limoousins would be fantastic

 

[marcros]

If you are going for 3D realism, then some of the ideas used by rocking horse makers might work, but on a large scale
(unless you can persuade them that they are Dexters!)
(for those not versed in cattle breeds, Dexters are a slightly miniaturised and skinnier version of an Aberdeen Angus)

Short legged version of the breed ideally!

 

[thick_mike]

Thinking sensibly...unless you want to make it your life's work...to make a full size wooden cow which is durable outside is a big ask. They are enormous.

Are they not fond of pigs? Or chickens? Or mushrooms?

 

[John Brown]

Maybe a bit ambitious, but I was very impressed with this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddsock/3064480466/
when I saw it a few years back.

 

[Glynne]

Picking up on what Marcros said, if you can't carve (like me) you can make rocking horses from laminating several layers of plywood from a pattern and then smoothing down to give the finished form.
Obviously for a cow you will need to adapt the patterns a bit but at least it's a start?
http://www.rockinghorse.co.uk/rocki...-laminated-'rocky'-rocking-horse-plan-129.jpg

Glynne

 

[thick_mike]

Googling around based on what Glynne said above ^^^^*

Have a look here about 3/4 of the way down the page for Buford and Bessie

http://www.skillspublish.com.au/UbuildChildRockers.htm

 

[nev]

A google image search for wooden cow will overwhelm you with ideas. for example...

admittedly number 4 may be tad adventurous

 

[marcros]

go for number 4. that would certainly be a talking point for the village.

Potentially, you could also gift it to the next village along, and then invade...