Paper Mâché Owl Part 3 - Adding the Head

In the last blog post I had just finished making the body.  My first picture will show what the body looks like from the inside to pick up where I left off.  The two silhouettes of the body were given depth by adding cardboard ribs held onto the body with masking tape.  Scroll back to the earlier post for more information on this.

Once the body was put together, the entire body was covered with masking tape for added stability.  The tape is the first layer of protection for the cardboard from the upcoming covering of paper mâché.  

Readers, please for give the picture placement.  I am still relearning how to use the blog platform.  Hopefully, I will develop better composition as I go along.

                              

Inside of the bird body.

                                             Exterior of body covered with tape.

As you can see from the first picture the top of the birds body is more or less squarish.  Not to worry, I am going to fix that and attach the head.

The first step is to get rid of the square corners.  I used a craft knife to cut a triangular piece out of each of the corners.  The cut was one inch long across each edge of the top of the body and one-half inch down the side of the body.  This cut allowed the top and bottom edge to more easily fold inward.  In the photo below, that is more easily seen on the top section of the body.  

After the cuts were made, I attached some more cardboard strips across the top.  This will be the platform for attaching the bird's head.  I used some leftover strips that I used for the ribs. These strips are three and a half inches long and one-half inch wide (2.54cm x 1.27 cm). The strips are not very strong, and are easy top push down on, which will allow me to more easily position the bird's head where I need it to be.  The head is not an exact sphere, so a little give here and there will be helpful.

The head was attached to the body with hot glue.  I debated at this point whether to position the head facing forward or sideways.  Owls can turn their heads really far in each direction.  I eventually decided to have it facing forward, but it could just as easily have been placed the other way.

As yet, the owl has no legs.  That will be dealt with in a later blog post.  For the moment, I am using a box I had at hand to prop the project up for a picture.  

The next step is to make the head and body join each other better.  So the next step is to give the owl a neck.  Once  again, I returned to my small cardboard strips.  

I folded in the front and back of the bird to get the edges as close to the head as I could.  In the picture left, you can more easily see the cutouts on the edges (They look like small diagonal edges.) that allowed me to press the front and back towards the head.

Once the edges were pushed towards the neck, I started adding more  cardboard strips along the neck.  I cut the strips to form as smooth a join as possible between the head and the body.  I used hot glue to hold the strips in place.  The strips also add a little more stability to the head.

Please scroll down for the last picture.

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I will end this segment here.  As you can see, there are still some sharp edges that need some work.  I will be blogging about that in my next blog post.  Check back on January 30th, for the next installment.