Diy Duck Tape Animal-Flamingo by Sophie Gaither

Who doesn't love a good lawn ornament? (Well either you love them or you hate them) If you're worried that you won't be able to get the materials due to insufficient costs don't worry about it. I was working with what I could find. Beforehand shout out to my dad who gave me some of his extra copper wire to work with. Anyway here are the materials we are going to use. Remember you can always customize your flamingo with different poses and colors. To start I just looked at the animal I wanted to do (in this case it's the Flamingo) and studied the colors and the shapes. It helps if you know and understand the structure of said animal. For this I looked at diagrams of the animal and decided on a pose.

1. Duck Tape-Bright pink, black, and white (your personal colors can vary)

2. Copper Wire- I did not strip my wire i just used it in the plastic but you can if you want you can also use any kind of wire but like I said I’m working with what I have.

3. Pliers- I only used them a few times but they will save you hands.

4. A Balloon- Any color you want but I had one that matched the tape so I'm using it.

Step 1: PART ONE: the Exoskeleton

So the exoskeleton is totally optional. However I recommend it. For the next few steps I used the pliers and the wire as well as the balloon.

1. Get a longish piece of wire and bend it in half. Twist it until it looks like above. Then bend in half again and do the same. You should now have a piece of twisted wire with two loopholes at either end. Do the same thing for a smaller piece and repeat this step.

2. Pair up the small and the long ones and put a small one overlapping the the larger loop. Cut a smaller piece of wire and make it into the angel you want. Don't worry if you don’t like the pose you can always bend it later.

3. After you have your legs go to the bottom of the long strand. Bend it the loop should now be like a foot. Behind the loop the two ends of the wire now need to be bent the opposite way.

4. Get another cut of wire and loop it between the two twists and wrap it around the bottom. Bend those wires till the are facing the sides. Play with them until the stand by themselves. You can always add more wire as counter weight. Do this for both legs and compare the heights. If they are not completely the same don’t panic it will even out in the end. YEAH!! Now we are done with the leg parts. On to the ‘body’.

Step 2: PART ONE: the Exoskeleton Body

1. Take your balloon and blow it to the size you want.

2. Then take a piece of wire and wrap it around it. Do this until you have a ‘cage’ around the balloon. Take a wire and go the width of the balloon.

3. Compare the body to the legs. If you like it move onto the next step if not take it apart and try again. Go to the opposite end of the wires and make a small twisted basket like tail. This is the main counter weight for the head and neck. Add onto the counter weight as need be throughout the rest of the steps

4. Now to attach the legs to the body take the wire and loop into the hoop. once that is secure wrap it into the the body cage wind it around the cage for a little ways, then go back to the leg and wrap down the leg to make it more sturdy.

Step 3: PART ONE: the Exoskeleton- Head/Neck

1. For the neck get a long piece of wire and do the same thing we have been doing but only fold it once. That way it’s a still long.

2. To do the head get some scrap paper (I didn’t add it to the materials because all you need is some scraps.) and make a ball. The ball is the main part of the head. Cover that with your white duct tape.

3. Make a beak the size you want it. Cover it with duct tape leaving some at the end uncovered. Make a hole in the main head part and stick the beak into it. Use the white duct tape to secure it to the head. Draw the eyes!!

4. The base color for the beak is black and white. Make the black to be an arrow shape. So the same with the head but with white and pink.

5. To connect the head and spine make a hole in the back of the head and insert the spinal wires into the hole until they find resistance do they will stay together relatively by themselves.

Step 4: PART TWO: Duct Tape- the Base

1. So flamingos have kind of knobby legs so let's start there. Take the pink tape and wrap it around the knees, one of mine were smaller than the other so I had to add some paper there to kind of even it out. Now take the white tape and cover the rest of the legs leaving some of the tops and the feet. I found the easiest way was to a long strip of white tape and put it on the legs in a downward spiral. It’s OK if it looks ugly right now.

2. -My neck was very wobbly so I added another wire to it. Don’t be afraid to do this- On to the neck so do the same thing you did with the legs but up. Add some tape connecting the spine and head. Add some white tape here and there to give it some personality.

3. To do the body I took long strips of tape and just covered it in pink again having white spots here and there. Don’t cover the counter weight tail yet because you might need to add more weight to it.

4. Add weight to the counter weight until it stands by itself. Add the tape base with some white and finish it off.

Step 5: PART TWO: Duct Tape- the Base Adding Feathers

There are multiple ways to make the feathers I did a little of both to give it some volume.

1. The first way to make the feathers is to take a strip of tape, fold it until there is still some sticky and cut flaps into the tape. Then take the tape and put it where you want and you can either leave it like that of put some tape over it to help it stay better. The second is to do so the same but to make half diamonds. For the tail feathers I was using long strips of tape of mostly white. The body is almost all pink. I also added a few black stripes because what the heck.

2. For the neck I recommend using the small stripes and overlapping them. Use the small strips for the legs as well. you can make the strips a little larger for the top the legs where it connects to the body and neck area where it connects.

(I don't have pictures of the feathers because there are just so many ways to make them)

Step 6: FINAL-Tripod Effect

I'm putting mine outside so I added a extra 'leg' to help it stand against the wind. Now depending on were you live this will be different. Example, I live in a very windy area so I have to add this leg. Take a long wire and after twisting it attach it to the tail. Once it is attached strengthen it with more wire put that in the ground and over the area. ow that that's there you can finish the tail and cover the most of the wire with feathers. To make it more inconspicuous I put some rocks around the area. You can hide the wire any way you want. Now you are finally done. Thanks for reading my first Indestructible and go get crafting!