How to Build a Navajo Folk Art Chicken

Navajo folk art chickens have simple lines, like the ones used to carve this cardinal.

A visit to Davis Mather's Santa Fe Folk Art Gallery in Santa Fe, N.M. or to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz. confirms the simplicity of a Navajo-inspired folk art chicken. These chickens allow the novice woodworker/woodcarver to practice techniques without worrying about perfection. Any carving flaws provide character to the piece. The painted accents consist of one-stroke patterns of stars, swirls, flowers and feathers, mimicking calico cloth.

Things You'll Need

• Cottonwood or other softwood blocks, 2-by-2-by-6 inch to 8-by-8-by-12 inch
• 2 C-clamps
• Tracing paper
• Carpenter's pencil
• Reciprocating saw
• Electric or cordless drill
• Rotary rasp
• 80- and 120-grit sanding drums, 2-inch diameter
• Medium through extra-fine sandpaper
• Bright red, blue, green, yellow or orange acrylic paint
• Black and white acrylic paint
• 2-inch paintbrush
• Palette
• Detail brushes
• 14-gauge black-steel, bright-steel or copper wire
• 1/16-inch drill bit
• Cottonwood slabs, 1-inch thick, 4- to 10-inch diameter
• Metal epoxy
• Carpenter's glue
• Raffia strands
• Thin metal skewer

Instructions

1. Secure a block of cottonwood or other softwood to your work table using one or more C-clamps. Sketch a rough outline of a chicken profile on the block, with a body resembling a thin Cheshire-cat smile for a rooster or a fatter Cheshire-cat smile for a hen.

2. Lay a sheet of tracing paper over your chicken profile. Trace along each line with a carpenter's pencil, using thick, dark lines.

3. Unclamp the block and turn it over, making sure that the original chicken profile is on the bottom. Flip your traced chicken sketch so that the head faces the same direction as the head of the chicken profile on the block, and so that the body positions match.

4. Trace the chicken profile onto the block again. You should now have chicken profiles on two opposite faces of your block, facing the same direction.

5. Clamp the block back into place and use a reciprocating saw to cut along the chicken profile on one side of the block at a time, cutting at a 20- to 45-degree angle, until you have a less blocky, slightly rounded, rough chicken shape. Unclamp the block, turn it over, clamp it again and repeat rough-cutting the chicken profile.

6. Use a rotary rasp in an electric or cordless drill to further refine your chicken's body until you are pleased with the rough shape.

7. Switch to a 2-inch diameter, 80-grit sanding drum to rough-sand the entire chicken body, followed by a 2-inch diameter, 120-grit drum.

8. Finish smoothing the chicken body by hand, using medium through extra-fine sandpaper, in that order.

9. Apply at least two coats of bright-colored acrylic paint to the entire chicken body, allowing it to dry overnight between coats. Traditional colors include bright red, blue, green, yellow or orange, but you can also use cream, white or black.

10. Apply any of the following traditional accents: crossed lines, lightning bolts, chili peppers, fruit, five single lines meeting to look like a standing person, feathers, swirls, dots, daisy or dandelionlike flower patterns and squiggles. Use white paint to accent darker-colored chicken bodies or black paint on lighter-colored ones. Allow accents to dry before proceeding.

11. Drill a 1/16- to 1/4-inch diameter hole into your chicken's tail area. The larger the hole, the fuller your chicken's tail can be. Cut raffia strands to the length you desire for your chicken's tail. Use a metal skewer to help you push strands of raffia into the hole to make your chicken's tail plumes.

12. Bend 14-gauge black-steel, bright-steel or copper wire to make a pair of three-toed legs if you want a standing chicken. Drill a 1/16-inch pilot hole into the belly of your chicken body for each leg. Push the straight ends of each leg into its hole. Omit legs if you want a laying hen instead of a rooster or standing hen.

13. Apply metal epoxy, which is the most effective adhesive for gluing metal to wood, to the chicken's feet. Press them onto a 1-inch-thick slab of cottonwood or other softwood with a diameter at least as great as the length of your chicken from beak to tail. Use carpenter's glue instead if your chicken will sit directly on the slab without legs.

Tips & Warnings

• It is illegal to use the label "Navajo" or "Navajo-made" to market your carvings if you are not a member of the Dineh, which is the name the people use to describe themselves. You can use the term "Navajo-inspired" if you are not Dineh.

References

• Santa Fe Folk Art Gallery: Navajo Folk Art -- Dareen Herbert
• "Raising Arizona Kids"; Stage Mom -- Art Adventures -- Heard Museum North; Lynn Trimble; Nov. 11, 2010
• The Indian Craft Shop: Navajo Folk Art
• This to That: Attach Metal to Wood