Stanley the barn owl

Here he is - Stanley the barn owl!  He looks very much like the prototype, but he's not the same one - honest!  Originally, I was hoping to find some interesting fabric for the the final version.  I spent £40 on various different things - lots of interesting hessians and stuff like that.  When I started trying to make the owl with them though, it was immediately obvious they weren't going to work.  Not only were they too un-stretchy and prone to fraying, but the hessian was more beige than mustard: it looked dull and didn't go with the grey lace at all.

I was a bit fed up at that point.  I did consider other things: some kind of smooth, short pile fur fabric would have been nice - but I've had my fill of using expensive fabrics and having to price really high, so in the end I decided to go with what I know works - i.e. the cotton that I made the prototype out of.

If I have time before the competition, I might try a version in the Schulte viscose - which is a really thin fabric with a fine pile to it.  I'm not sure it would work to paint that, but it would certainly add more texture to his face, which I think he needs.

I'm really pleased with his feet!  Originally I just painted them pale pink, and they looked like a pair of plastic feet I'd propped him up on - you know, like the potato-head toys, where you get a plastic potato and then all these accessories to decorate them with.  Then I tried sponging some white paint over the top, and it worked really well.

Anyway, I just about got him done in the time allotted (he still needs another layer of varnish on his feet, but that takes five minutes).  I'm now working on a Falkor luck dragon for the Hugglets show.  Hopefully, he will be finished this week!

  

Barn Owl - More Progress

Good morning!  I came to work today, bringing my barn owl with me, but inadvertantly leaving my camera at home - so excuse the phone pics.  His face also looks a bit weird (flat-sided) in the photos because I've sewn up the opening at the back, and since it was so frayed from all the changes I've made to him, it took a lot more fabric than it should have done.

He seems to be taking so long - but then I guess I always think that when I'm trying something new.  I sat down a couple of days ago and tried to plan it out.  Really I should be making bears for the big Hugglets show, on 28th February, but I'd really like to have the owl on my stall!  I've decided to give him two weeks - this week just gone, and the next one.  If he's not practically done by then, I shall put him aside and move on to something else, then come back to him later.

The thing is, there's a big international teddy bear competition coming up, which actually has an owl category.  I never have much luck with these things - and they cost a bit to enter - but it seems silly not to enter, since I happen to be making an owl at the moment.  However, the deadline for entry is right at the beginning of March, so if he's not done for Hugglets, there won't be a lot of time to finish him for the competition.  So, I'd better get a move on!

I have made progress since I posted last: I have added what I can only describe as a 'nose guard'.  In a lot of the pictures of barn owls that I've been looking at, you can't actually see much of the beak at all - it's covered by the fluffiness of the nose.  Since I can't guarantee that my final fabric with be sufficiently fluffy (I wasn't even intending to use a fur fabric for him), I thought I'd best go for a separate piece, applied over the top.  It sort of works.  He looks a lot more... nosey (nasal?) now - rather than beaky - which is the effect I was trying to get.  I think I'll just have to be careful about stitching it on - he's in danger of looking like he's got a big sticking plaster over his nose.

I've also made a stab at colour and pattern.  I slapped on some yellow paint to get the colour.  The pattern thing is more difficult.  Hand-painting never seems to work for me - it just lacks subtly.  What I really need is an airbrush, which I do have but I've never learned how to use.  It struck me though that the barn owl feather pattern looks a bit lacey, and even slightly bejewelled (they have a lovely, tiny, luminous, black/white spot pattern over their head and shoulders - see my owl Pinterest board here), so I bought some grey lace and overlaid it onto the back of the head and the feather pieces.  Then I glued little black-rimmed rhinestones onto it.

I'm still trying to get used to it.  He's taken rather an unexpected turn - he suddenly looks rather boudoir, with all that lace!  But whilst I'm sort of beginning to buy the lace thing, the rhinestones still look to me like lots of little ants.  Really, the decoration needs to be flat.  Sequins perhaps?

Anyway, hope to be back to soon, with a more finished-looking barn owl!

New design - progress

Good morning!  I am currently struggling with an owl design.  Here he is in his latest (and sweetest, I think) incarnation.  I have been going back and forth on the shape of his head.  He is supposed to be a barn owl, and when you look at barn owls (lots of owls, in fact) from the front, they seem to have a flattish head - sometimes with a sort of centre parting or furrow.  However, when you look at them in profile, they have a nice curve to the top of the head.  Trying to get both effects at once is proving near impossible!

When we went to Bridge Farm Barns at Monks Eleigh recently, to offer some hedgehogs and bears at the Brett Gallery, I saw a beautiful handmade ceramic barn owl - a very friendly-looking thing, but with quite a strange-shaped head.  I remember looking at him thinking, 'he's lovely - really sweet - but there's something not quite right...'  Looking at my attempt now, I'm wondering if the artist had the same problem I'm having - if you put a curve in the profile view, his head starts to look domed from the front.

I am going to have one more go at it - although I'm thinking of saving this pattern.  I think I actually like him better with a domed head than with a flat one.  You can see the flat version halfway down my last post.

I really must get on with it though.  Having thrown off the shackles of commercial enterprise, I'm being far too relaxed about the timing!  And it's particularly important in this case because, whilst I'm practically done with the structural stuff, he doesn't look remotely barn-owl-like yet!  I think that's going be primarily down to the embellishment unfortunately (my least favourite bit)!