A few months ago we showed our range of garden sundials to a lady from Edinburgh. She wanted a 60th birthday present for her husband. Rather than choosing one of the sundials on display, our poster sketch of a new sundial instantly caught her eye. Its gnomon was shaped like a bird and this is the one she chose. She wished to set the sundial on a new stone pedestal.
It was our job to turn the poster sketch into a finished sundial for the garden. It became our Songbird sundial design. First we made an artistic drawing, looking for a real likeness of a garden bird. We wanted a profile with clean lines and a see-through quality. The gnomon angle had to be correct.
We decided on brass for the gnomon like our other designs. Machining would be simplified if the rough shape was cut out first. We did this by water-jet cutting. We based the design dimensions and fixing on our existing Hourdial sundial design. We designed the pedestal with a square tapered pillar and octagonal top.
Our local stonemason made the pedestal and built it in the garden. The same morning we received this photo by email. The 60th birthday present and our new designs for Songbird sundial and stone pedestal had been a success.