Feathers as art

It's hard to imagine that you can depict an entire picture on a bird's feather, but Chris Maynard does it masterfully. The images are very light and fragile, just like the material from which they are made. The birds in his works, carved to the smallest detail, seem to be breaking out of the captivity of a solid feather and flying to freedom.

Chris Maynard is a magician, wizard, virtuoso of fantastic transformations. He is able to turn a single feather not just into a bird, but into a whole flock of various birds.

Chris Maynard, a resident of Olympia in Washington state, uses thin ophthalmic surgical instruments, miniature scissors, forceps and sharp scalpels to cut feathers into intricate bird-like designs.

Chris created his first pen work in 2011. Since then, the artist has created many such objects of art, each of which is created within a few days. The feathers are then placed in frames called "shadow boxes". These stunning works sell for prices ranging from $800 to $2,000.

Before adding another portion of feathers to his collection, the artist conducts thorough research to find out which bird they belonged to. Each feather is the greatest jewel; two identical feathers, like diamonds, cannot be found in the world. Therefore, it is impossible to make two absolutely identical works - each of them is individual and unique, one of a kind.

Chris Maynard spends many hours hunched over his surgical table to carve feathered birds, flocks and colonies of birds. Surgical because he uses instruments that are used in eye microsurgery: special scissors, tweezers, clamps and scalpels.

Carving fragile figures from bird feathers is also a kind of microsurgery, they can be so miniature, even tiny. Moreover, when there is only one feather, and there is a whole flock of birds that would obscure the sky if they were of real size. This is why Chris Maynard seems like a great magician - not every illusionist can turn one feather into a flock of birds.