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.