owl tree topper, step 2

only I could possibly get sooooo excited about paper mache that I would plow straight ahead with the owl completely forgetting to take photos of the end of step 1.  by the time I realized my error, I was up to my elbows in goo and halfway through adding details to my owl.  sigh. all I can do is beg your forgiveness and hope for the best.

as you can see if you compare him now to his bare owl-ness before he got his first layer of paper mache–and trust me, he looked just like that but with a layer of paper mache on top–I’ve added a lot of details, and built him up in areas.

I decided that his neck needed to be thicker…

…his head needed some eye holes, a beak, and a squar-er shape…

…and he got some wings…

…a belly…

…and when I finally came up for air and realized I was neglecting my tutorial duties, I had started working on some tail feathers.

he seemed to be getting a little too heavy and I wanted to make sure he still fit on the tree!

Uh, woops, it turns out that he is, in fact, too heavy and/or the tube is too short , so I opened up his back by cutting through the way too thick layers with an craft knife and pulling out the innards.

This was messy and a little gross, as the inside was still quite damp and had actually molded a bit.  Yum.  I’ll paper mache over the hole so you won’t see it.  Learn from my mistakes and make your life easier–use a paper towel tube instead of a short little toilet paper tube and wrap the belly section around top, adding the head on top of all that.

At least now he sits properly on top of the tree!

I’ve been putting him on top of a bottle, which makes it easier to spin him and work on him.  He’s turning into quite a nerdy bird!