Last autumn I enjoyed watching a kingfisher almost every time I walked along the nearby canal. The flash of blue as they swoop past is really quite incredible. The amazing colour is very cleverly due to light bending magic, or structural colouration, where colour is produced by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light, as opposed to from pigments, which is the more conventional approach. I thought the iridescence of their feathers made them an ideal subject for metal art.
When tempering steel you have to carefully gauge how much heat to apply, and use a light touch. The metal has a time lag as the colours develop, but is also incredibly sensitive to changes in temperature . It’s very easy to heat it a fraction too much and the colours rapidly move from straw to bronze through to purple, blue and pale silver. I tried to match the colours at least approximately to the right areas. I’m quite pleased with the result.
