Our Wackin Burd is by Teignmouth Pier

Artist Vicky Jocher has almost finished her sculpture of The Swan of the Exe
Thankyou to everyone who made all her feathers
Her plumage is magnificent

and if it wasn't for a mobile phone falling out of Monica's  jeans pocket and landing in the loo...
there would be photographs here now
Phone is sitting in rice for a few days...

• The head of the swan has been made by putting all the leftover bits from the milkbottle feathers into a wire-netting cage.
• Her orange bill is a canoe-paddle which was found on Teignmouth back beach several years ago.
• Her plumage of milk-bottle feathers is attached to a green, hand-made trawler net, which was given to us by Luci Coles from Trailart
• Her white-netting wings are from Exeter Scrapstore 
• Her tail is a boat donated by Teignbridge District Council This boat has 'Axe' barely discernible, painted on her side. She had been retrieved as she drifted off Dawlish Warren, partially submerged because her unsinkable plastic hull had filled with water.
• The wake is made from some white net-curtains, which were from Exeter Freecycle
• The water is the blue netting that builders use on scaffolding
• The netting gabion she tows is filled with flotsam&jetsam gathered at Dawlish Warren and Padstow
• Her pink buoy was from Dawlish Warren
• The green saltwater crocodile was given by the wardens on the Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve. They had retrieved it from the beach of this Site of Special Scientific Interest
• The plastic can-holders were from Dawlish Bowling Club Thankyou Wayne for saving them

Here's the current entry on the Trailart website:
 The brand new Starcross History group presents the iconic, Victorian, maritime folly, The Swan of the Exe. Captain George Peacock commissioned Dixons of Exmouth to build his luxurious white and gold  yacht in the form of a swan. She was moored at Starcross. She survived until the 1960s, but rises again to join T.R.A.I.L. to protest plastic pollution of the planet.  Today’s Swan is a scrapped, plastic dinghy. Her plumage  has been made from plastic milk bottles. She’s caught up in a fishing net, with examples of the billions of tons of plastic flotsam and jetsam which inexorably  accumulate in the deep ocean.

That was sent to TRAIL before Vicky Jocher was found, and before she gave her workshops at Starcross Primary School. We've sent a new version, but it may have been too late for the printers:

Vicky Jocher studied Fine Art at Cork CCAD in 1986 and is currently studying Illustration at Plym,outh University. She uses many media in her artworks and she is influenced by the Devon countryside and especially the coastlines of this beautiful county. “T.R.A.I.L.'s ethos of community involvement and recycling conciousness strike strong chords with me” she says. “Being asked to be involved by Starcross History was a lovely opportunity to bring the life of the village, particularly the school, into such a striking project”. The historical Starcross 'Swan of the Exe Boat" is referenced in this sculpture which flows gracefully through turbulent, plastic-strewn waters with its feathers made by the people of Starcross " ...

Have Nathan Hogg's poem about The Swan of the Exe instead of a picture for now.

Wul, then ess luk’d owt pin tha zay,
(Zich thing wiz niver yer’d,)
Vur bigger thin a rick a hay
Thare zwim’d a wackin burd,
And ez ess raud, ha turn’d es bayk,
Thort I “now hang on varm,
Vur ef he com’th and vind’th thur wayk,
He’ll ait thur like a warm.

Thankyou Wayland Wordsmith

We're on the lookout for 2 half-tennis-balls for our swan's eyes, and TRAIL have given us some material to make her penant. The deadline to complete everything is SUNDAY morning   19th  July