Making Owl #1

1/17/2017

Yesterday I finished the owl sculpture that I've been working on since the end of December. There a few minor things I would change, but generally I'm pretty happy with it. I originally set out to make a great horned owl at the suggestion of a local resident who was interested in buying it for her garden. After I started working on it, though, I realized I wasn't having a lot of fun trying to anticipate what someone else might or might not like. So I through the "for sale" idea out the window and focused on just having a good time making an owl. Here is how it turned out (here is a video):

And here is how I made it.

I originally had it mounted on a piece of bed frame that would fit over a 2 x 4. My plan was to drill a couple of holes for mounting the frame and then sculpt the toes so it would look like they were grasping the 2 x 4.

I haven't spent much time looking at owls, so I had to look at a lot of photographs to try to get the body proportions and stance right. I built a basic frame using junk steel rods and other odds and end. The big gear that will become part of the shoulder is from a broken paper shredder that I finally took apart after carting it around for years.

I made most of the belly feathers with the metal shredding disks that were inside the paper shredder. I started building the wings with some pieces of the frame to an old sled (red). I used other pieces of that sled in my pachycephalosaurus.

The tail feathers are the handles from butter knives. I learned with the rooster that it works best for me to build birds from the inside out, as feathers are almost always overlapped by other feathers.

I used the blades of butter knives (obviously) for the feathers at the ends of the wings. I built the shape of the upper part of the wings using some scrolled steel pieces from an old plant stand that I scavenged from my parents' basement (I also used parts of that same plant stand on my pachycephalosaurus and the MiG-15 I'm working on). I used pieces of thin sheet metal (cut from the same rusted platter I used for many of the feathers on the rooster -- I'm going to miss that platter when it's gone) to create some surfaces on the upper wings.

By this point I had realized two things: (1) the legs were too long; and (2) I was keeping the owl. I cut it off the original base and took the opportunity to work on the belly feathers. This shows the shredder disks all welded in but not "smoothed" by grinding.

This shows the body re-mounted on a new base: a perch made from the handle of some kind of steel tool and a cast iron microphone stand that I serendipitously found in the base of our house (left by the previous owners).

I used an angle grinder and a flap disk to touch up the edges of the belly feathers to try to create some contrast and texture.

A piece of 3" exhaust pipe and a tea kettle lid were about the right size, so I started the head with those.

I started working on the upper belly with some pieces of a rusty appliance frame that I picked up years ago at "Hell's Bridge," Michigan, on a road trip with my daughter.

SCETV visited my workshop while I was working on the owl. They did an interview for Palmetto Scene, which should air in late January or early February.

Starting to build the face and head. I used a handle of a trash can, some bike parts, and old scissor handles to start building up the face. I bought some glass eyes because I thought they would look good. They did not and I abandoned the idea.

The first beak (shown here) is made from a piece of a large carabiner.

The face and head after a considerable amount of work. I used a bunch of links (cut in half) from a small chain to try to make feathers around the eyes. That was tedious. They were too small to hold in place with my glove on, so I eventually had to resort to using a pair of tweezers (I could not find the needle-nosed pliers). Those got the job done, but not without a lot of dropping and cussing. Not my favorite part of this project.

Once I finally got the area around the eyes built up and looking like I wanted it, the original beak had drowned. I had to make a larger one that would protrude correctly. I'm getting better at beaks (since the first ones never work right, I've made twice as many beaks as birds). I made this one from some tool hanging hooks -- I welded few together, filled in the gaps with the welder, and ground it down and cut it to fit.