Paper Mâché Owl Part 9 - Adding the Feathers.

I am sorry I am late getting the blog post up today.  It has been a very busy week.  Spring is here, and I have been spring cleaning.  This year my husband and I have started clearing out the attic.  We have kept so much over the years that we no longer use.  We have been very busy getting it sorted and taken to donate or trash.  It has kept me from doing as much work on the owl as I would have liked.

I have started adding the feathers.  In this case the feathers are made out of cardboard.  I drew a rough feather shape for the bottom of the feather, but left the tops squared off.  The feathers are laid down individually using hot glue to keep them in place.  

The feathers are different sizes and shapes depending where they are on the bird.  I started with the legs and tail and have been working my way up.  The small feathers on the legs were difficult because they were so small they were hard to handle.  I have some silicon finger protectors that really helped save the day.  They kept me from burning my fingertips.  However, the trade off was that the tiny pieces were hard to place.  

After the legs, I started on the tail.   I have been working my way up from there to the rest of the body.  I am actually a little further ahead than these pictures show, but I have not had time to take any more new pictures yet.  Next week I should be pretty close to completing this portion of the project.

I guess readers are wondering at this point if I am every going to put any paper mâché on this bird.  That will come after I finish painting the eyes made and the feathers all in place.  

Some paper mâché projects are just building up layers of paper.  An example of this would be putting layers of paper  mâché over a cardboard box to make a stiff box.  An example of this would be an early project of mine for a pumpkin jack in the box.  Hopefully my painting skills have improved since then.

Painted box that was made by covering the box with layers of paper mâché. 

Some projects are building up layers of paper mâché over a mold and then removing the layers from the mold.  An example of this would be my pumpkin series or the goblin heads.  After the project is completely covered with multiple layers, a sharp craft knife is used to cut the item off of its mold and then more layers of paper mâché are used to cover over the cut edges and form a three dimensional project.

Pumpkin removed from the mold.  I also made the mold for this pumpkin.

This owl project is a different type of project.  First I completely hand made the armature for the bird and it is an integral part of the project.  It will remain inside the bird to from and maintain the structure.  This project has been more about creating a sculpture; with the paper mâché being the glue that will be the final coat that will keep everything together.  

Armature for the owl.

You can view my other projects by scrolling back to see earlier posts or by going to folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com    .   

Paper Mâché Owl Part 8 Adding Some Bulk and Feathers

Last blog post I said the most of the armature was complete.  I guess the key word there was "most".  Once I had the owl standing, I decided that it needed some padding around the thigh.  So I added some foil and tape to fill out the thigh.  I used foil to create the shape.  After that it was covered with more tape.

                                                             

Padding the thigh.

After the thigh was padded, the wing did not seem to have enough shape, so I added some shaped layers of foil and tape on both wings.  Building up the armature is a multistep process.  With each layer I try to make it look a little more like an owl.

                                      Adding more shaping to the wings.

The feet needed some bulking up before I start to add the layers of paper mâché.  Owl's feet and claws are covered with thick skin, much like chicken feet.  They are bumpy and very rough.  To mimic that shape, I used some hot glue to give the foot some texture and make it a little thicker.  This will also reduce the amount of layers of paper mâché needed to fill out the feet.  

Hot glue on the feet to add some bulk.

This completed most of the armature, but it needs feathers to make it look more like a bird.  Next blog post I will show adding the "feathers".  Check back next week for the next segment.

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 7 - Owl Now Standing On Its Feet

Last week I blogged about making the legs and claws.  This week I am pleased to say that the owl is now standing on its own two feet.  Getting the owl's legs attached and the owl balanced was not an easy task.  I had to move the legs forward from where I had anticipated they would be placed to make it stand up. All in all it took a little over an hour to get it to stay up.  The owl leans a little bit, but in a way it makes it look as if it is strutting rather than being still.  Sometimes I just have to work with what is there rather than making it look exactly as I would like.

Owl legs and feet.

The "thigh bone" is a little longer than it would be on a real bird.  I had to make sure that the wires of the upper legs would have enough length to support the weight of the bird.  They were almost too long.  I actually tried cutting them back a little bit, but the four doubled wired in each leg proved too difficult to cut.  It was easier to use them as they were.  Otherwise, I would have had to start over making the legs again.  I would have liked the upper legs to be about half an inch shorter, but such is life.  

The first leg went on easily enough.  I figured out the balance point I was trying to achieve and hot glued the leg into place. You can see a small mark that showed where I originally thought the balance point would be versus where it needed to be. Then I glued in some heavy cardboard supports to keep the leg from slipping.  The close up picture of the supports is from the first side.

Close up of mounted leg.

The second leg was where the trouble came in.  Just trying to match the first leg's position was not enough.  It took a couple of tries to get it in the right place.  What looked like the balance point was a little off.  I had to remove and re-glue the leg a couple of times to get it to stand up.  It made me glad that I had multiple layers of tape on the body.  One of the layers pulled off during the removal of the leg from the failed attempts.  

The second side is somewhat messier than the first side. It was difficult to try to balance the bird on one leg while using one hand to hold the glue gun and also make sure the second leg was in the right place.   It took a lot of glue to get the leg to stay on the bird. However, the messy glue is not something to worry about at this point.  There is still plenty left to do before the armature is completed.  No one will see the messy glue once it is covered with paper mâché.

Owl side view.

In order to get the owl to stand without wobbling,  I had to bend the wires of the claws a bit.  The rest of the feet will be built up with layers of paper mâché.  The important thing to remember when making something using an armature and paper mâché is that it is built up in layers.  Where you start is not where it will be when it is finished.  It just takes a lot of patience to get to the finish line.  

I still have a bit of work to do on the armature.  I need to add some padding around the legs.  Since there are cardboard supports, I also want to add another layer of Press and Seal and some tape over that area to prevent the cardboard from becoming soggy when I start to add the paper mâché.  

Owl strutting.

Other than padding the legs, the armature is pretty much finished.  Then the real work begins.  I still have to create the eyes and I have to start considering the feathers.  I would like to build in some of the shape of the feathers before I start adding the layers of papier mâché.  I think that creating some feather definition will make the feathers stand out more when it comes to painting the owl.  More on that in a future post.

Check back next week for the next post.

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 6 - Making the Legs

Yesterday, I started working on the legs.  I guess I should say the legs and feet.  An owl has three claws on the front of the foot, and one toe that faces towards the back.  Why aren't the all called claws?  I don't know. But now that I looked up owl's feet, I have started on the legs and feet.

                                                      I needed the legs to have some strength, because the bird's framework

is fairly heavy since it is made from cardboard.  I have made the legs and made sure they actually stand up.  The next step is to attach the legs to the bird and get it balanced.  

First things first: safety.  When working with wire, wear heavy work gloves and eye protection.  Where the wire is cut, it can be very sharp and give a bad cut or scratch.  And since the wire comes coiled in a package, it can also be very springy. Coiled wire can whip back and potentially hit you in the eye.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Since I expect the bird to be fairly heavy, I made the legs out of 16 gauge galvanized steel wire.  Although it may not look like it in the picture, since I did not line them up well, the legs pieces are all the same length.  I started by cutting eight pieces of wire 16 inches (40.64 centimeters).  Each foot had four pieces of wire, one for each of the three claws and the toe.

After the wires were cut, I bent them in half using a pair of needle nose pliers.  Once they were bent more or less bent to an equal length, I topped off the cut ends with some masking tape to shield the cut edges.  I say more less because this wire was very stiff and getting to bend was not easy.  Then I bundled four of the wires together and finished covering the wires all the way down to where I expected the feet claws and toe to start.  Next I bent the claws and toe to their planned positions.  The rounded part of the bent wires were the ends of the claws and toe.  After that, those areas also were covered with masking tape.  

Next came the bend in the upper part of the wire to allow for the thigh.  That was pretty tough.  Trying to bend all those wires at once was almost too much for my hand strength.  Getting the legs to match the bend on each side was even harder.  Eventually I was able to get things to more or less the same angles.  After that, I had to fiddle with the feet until I was able to get everything balanced.  

All in all it took just about an hour to make the legs.  That was as much crafting time as I had at the moment.  The next blog post will show how the legs will be attached to the body.  If the bird stands on its own, I will be on to the next stage and working on the feathers.  If the owl does not stand, I will be back to working on legs again.  When everything is an experiment, you are glad when it works out.  Sometimes learning what did not work is the lesson.  The main thing is to persist until it does work.

Check back next week for the new blog post.