Owl Making

I made this little guy today and decided to share how it happened just in case any of you wanted to try.

To make this project you will need:

1 56g block of STAEDTLER fimo effect #505 mint

1 56g block of STAEDTLER fimo soft #0 white

scrap clay any colour

glass glitter

STAEDTLER fimo clear varnish

white glue

jewelry wire and double round nosed pliers (or eye pins)

basic sculpting tools

two small pearl beads for eyes

I'm using the Skinner blend, originated by the wondrous Judith Skinner.

I want a gradient of white and mint so I'm making my triangles from equal parts of those two colours. I flattened them out and then ran them through my pasta roller on setting one, or the thickest setting. You can also use a rolling pin to roll the clay to 1/8th of an inch thick.

Fold the side over. You want the edges with both colours to meet. Not the white edge to the green edge.

Here are the results after three folds and passes through the pasta machine.

Six folds and passes through the rollers.

Nine times through the machine.....

I think I'm there!

I wadded up some scrap clay into the shape of an egg and cover it with the sheet of gradient clay. I tried to keep the scrap clay in the middle of the colour. I wanted the front of the owl to be white and the back to be mint. Trim away any extra clay and seal the edges blending the seams in as you go.

I added some eye, beak and ear shapes with white clay onto the white side of the head and blended in the edges.

I made some teardrop wings to the sides of the owl.

Next I added six little toes.

I used the end of a tool to make some indentations around the eyes and at the bottom edge of each wing.

I cut a 6cm piece of 16 gauge wire and made a loop in the middle by wrapping it around a tool handle. Then I twisted the free ends of the wire together.

Insert the twisted wire ends into the top of the owl.

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees  and bake the owl for 20 minutes. I baked mine hanging on a knitting needle suspended on the edge of a bake-able mug. That way there are no flat spots on the piece from where it rested on the baking tray.

Use the white glue to adhere some small pearl beads into the eyes.

I coated the inside of the ears, the eyes, the toes and the wings with white glue and then dusted them with glass sparkles. After they dried I coated the sparkled areas with a layer of STAEDTLER varnish.

You can make these guys teeny for a necklace pendant or larger for a Holiday ornament. I really like this new STAEDTLER fimo effects colour #505 mint, but you could certainly change up the colours to anything you desire. There is an endless amount of colours to choose from with fimo.