Pigs Might Fly! 🐷

Pigs might fly! The expression is quite easy to understand. Basically a sarcastic remark on something never to happen or something never being done. Where the phrase 'pigs might fly' comes from is something of a mystery though. There are many variables to the phrase depending on what century or country it's used.  Some researchers say the origins of the phrase descended from the Americas, because of the difficulties of farming pigs, others say it originates from Scotland from 1616 list of proverbs by John Withals's English-Latin A Shorte Dictionaries for Yonge Begynners. Where it mentions 'pigs fly with their tails forward'* which became a phrase for many years.  As for the image of pigs flying in the sky going back further into the 16th century a book called 'Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel' by François Rabelais features a beautiful woodblock print illustration by Paul Gustave Doré of a flying pig monster with bird like wings.

Original translation *'Pigs fly in the ayre with their tayles forward.'

To make your own flying pig hanging Ornament you will need. 

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/pig-mdf-wood-shape-style-4.html

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/pig-mdf-wood-shape-style-3.html

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/sheet-of-mini-mdf-wood-wings-style-4.html

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/sheet-of-mini-mdf-wood-wings-style-3.html

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/rounded-rectangle-greyboard-mixed-media-board-style-18.html

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/wooden-word-elements-blank.html

Assortment of acrylic paints including matt white and metallic gold, plus paintbrushes. 

Crackle medium. 

Texture paste and spatula/tool for applying. 

Gold pen and black pen. 

A slice of wood. 

Glitter or gilding flakes. 

Super glue. 

String for hanging. 

Firstly I painted all my mdf shapes with an undercoat of matt white acrylic paint. This helps to give a nice base for adding lighter colours to MDF. 

I then painted on two coats of a pretty piggy pink paint to my pigs and also their wings. To give my pig wings an angelic look I added gold metallic tips using metallic gold acrylic paint. 

I then painted my slice of wood and word plaque with the same matt white paint. Edging the wood slice with the same gold metallic paint used for my pigs wings. 

Once dry I glued on my largest pig to the wood slice. This will be my centre piece. 

To create the background I painted a mixed media board with light blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Once dry I painted on a crackle medium to create the look of an old painting. I left the crackle to dry naturally for 24 hours before continuing. 

I then edged the whole background with texture paste to create a chunky gold frame. I mixed in gold metallic gold paint into the paste and once dry went over again with metallic gold paint to really make it glisten. 

I then arranged all my MDF shapes and glued in place with super glue. 

I then added texture paste and gilding flakes to the joint of the wings, where the wings would be joined to the pigs body.  I then added little extra details such as face and body shape to the pigs using a gold pen. 

To finish off I added a length of string for hanging and wrote in black pen 'Pigs Might Fly' on the word element. You could of course add a different phrase or glue on typed wording. But I wanted mine to be more hand-made in appearance. 

Well I hope you enjoyed another 'Kat make'. I hope they inspire you to have a go at creating your own.
If you have any questions please get in touch I am always happy to help if I can. 
Another 'Kat make' coming soon.
Until then happy making, 
Kat 😊