How to make an owl, part one

 Well, hello there blog world! Now that it has been nearly a year since I posted last, I figure it is high time I share a little something! I've been making things here and there but up till this point our little family has been far too busy for me to post anything! In January we found out my husband got into vet school and we spent the rest of the months since preparing for our move, visiting loved ones and settling into our new life here in Kansas. But now that it is Halloween season again, how can I resist posting more projects for my craft friends!

I have always been a fan of owls, especially around Halloween time, but after my son dressed up as an owl for his costume last year, our family has been especially fond of this feathered friend! For this reason, we decided that we needed to add owls to our Halloween decor. The wonderful thing about owls is that the shape is so basic that they can be made very easily. I had such a ball making mine that I ended up making two different large sizes and then made a bunch a little fellows that I'll share later. Would you like to give it a try?

Whenever sculpting something with any sort of real size or thickness, it helps to make a form first. This keep the drying time down and also allows you to not have to use as much clay as you would otherwise need. I find this step fun since you can be creative in what you use to build your form. Really almost anything will do so you just have to look for the right shapes. Honestly, nine out of ten times I use balloons to make my forms. They cheap and can easily be removed. As in most cases, I decided to use balloons for this project as well.

 For this project I used:

2 balloons (blown up in different sizes)

-newspaper

-masking tape (but any kind will do)

-paper mache paste (my recipe can be found here)

First off, stack the two balloons with the smaller one on top and tape in place.

Then rip up your paper in strips. Different sizes of strips come in handy for the different stages of your projects. (Typically I start with large pieces to cover the balloon and then work smaller as I do more detail and need more smooth finishes).

Start covering your paper in paste and smooth onto your balloons:

 In this case I decided that I wanted my owl a little more compact than I had originally taped the balloons so I pushed the balloons together and then used strips of paper and paste to hold them in place.

Next up were the wings. I took a large strip of paper, covered it with paste:

 Then I rolled it loosely:

 I then put paste on on side of one end:

 and plopped it on to the side of my owl. Once I got it exactly where I wanted it, I then covered it with more strips to secure it.

 From there I moved on to the feathery eyebrows. I took a long strip of paper, covered it with paste and then twisted it up:

 After folding it to the right size, I pasted it near the top of my form.

 I repeated that step for the other side and then secured them in place with more strips of paper and paste:

 Next I did the eyes by twisting more paper and placing them in circles.

 Then I covered them with more paper and paste:

 For the beak I balled up paper with paste and then secured it in the spot I wanted:

 Ta dah! There you have it! Your owl form is done! Now it just needs to dry! So set it out to dry in the sun and stay tuned for the next step on Monday!