Floral Owl Chick - Julie Ann

Hello Everyone! It's great to be here at Calico Craft Parts Blog once again. We're still experiencing wintry weather here in the UK, but despite the cold there are signs of spring in the daffodils and the odd tulip beginning to peep up through the earth. This week I hadn't quite finished experimenting with variations on hearts and I decided to use the heart shape to create a little character who symbolises new beginnings - an owl chick! Dangling from a branch, with that look of determined concentration, I think she is taking her first tentative flaps towards flight.

My owl chick really began with a doodle. I wanted to see if I could create a fantasy owl from leaf and flower shapes and this is what I came up with.

After scanning my doodle, I adjusted the size of my little owl face and fixed it to one of the beautiful, smaller sized Calico birch ply heart plaques. There are many sizes to choose and the standard hearts are lovely shapes to work with. I decided I would use a larger plaque as a body and you can see this shape waiting to be altered in the right of the image above.

Now it was time to dip into my treasure trove of Calico Craft Parts and I grabbed this Art Nouveau arrangement of spring tulips. Maybe I have a quirky view of the world, but turned upside down it looked remarkably owl-shaped to me! The roots at the top seemed to form a feathery tuft too.

As my owl chick squeaked away in the background, I toyed with the idea of floral wings, but she insisted that conventional wings made better sense and I had to agree with her.

For her body, I painted a medium sized heart black and when this was dry, I added a thin layer of crackle glaze. Thick strokes of brown acrylic over the dry crackle added texture and I then stencilled over this in bright colours with a feathery stencil to create what I hoped would be a nice, fluffy effect.

My tiny owl chick was now eager to make her first attempt at flight. I melted gold UTEE on the tips of her wings and the edge of those tulip petals to suggest the golden light of the setting sun touching her wings as she flies into the twilight.

Meet Olivia, the owl! I didn't even need to get out my Dremel to drill holes for this one, as the tiny tulip roots provided a little space to thread some twine through. If you know that your project will require holes and you don't own a Dremel or similar mini drill, Calico will provide your plaque with holes too. Olivia's first attempts at flight might not be the most dignified movements you'll see, but soon she'll be moving across summer skies swiftly and silently, a graceful hunter! Let's hope the springtime's tentative beginnings will sweep across the land and flourish into a warm and fruitful summer. Have a lovely week wherever you are and happy creating!

Calico Craft Parts Used
Small sized standard heart shaped ply wood plaque
Larger sized standard heart shaped ply wood plaque
Art Nouveau Tulips style 27
Sheet of mini mdf wood Angel wings, style 4