Incredible mechanical bird wing with individual feathers folds and flaps

Check out this amazing bird wing design by that talented Bliss Kolb. Kolb has a real knack for creating beautiful and lifelike bird automata as you can see here and here and here. His aptitude is demonstrated once again in this masterful recreation of a bird wing which can both fold and unfold as wall as flap.

The wing is a work in progress, the final result to be a crank-operated automaton duck.

From the artist's web site:

The feathers are made from Kozo rice paper. I had to add an additional primary feather to the first section to fill out the spacing.

It was a challenge to get the feathers to open & close smoothly without binding or hitting each other. Each one had to be cut to avoid obstacles yet remain large enough to operate smoothly and look right.

Turns out the wider the feathers are, the easier they work.

See more automata by Bliss Kolb at blisskolbautomata.com

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