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This is a posable owl doll I created. Posable art dolls are my newest addiction. They're difficult, but they turn out well and I'm excited to share!

I started with a drawing of how I wanted the doll to look. I used it to get the correct proportions to make an armature. Using steel wire, I twisted 2 wires together for strength and durability and made the body, wings, and tail. Then I used a smaller gauge steel wire and made the feet with many strange twisted together. At the end of each toe, I sculpted a talon from polymer clay. The legs were then attached to the main body with more wire and floral tape.

Next, I sculpted the face of the owl and attached it to the body. It actually cracked in the oven because I didn't let it cool properly before I took it out, so I had to repair it. Lucky all that ended up on the inside where you can't see.

I cut little strips of felt out and glued them around each toe and around the feet to cover the wire. I thought about using pipe cleaner, but this method looked more professional and was stronger. Although I did burn myself quite a bit.

After that, i used my sketch to trace and cut out all the feathers I would need for the wings and tail. These were then hot glued onto pieces of the fur to form the wings and tail. The wings and tail were then attached to the armature.

After that, I made a rough pattern for the body and head using my sketch and a lot of guess work. I sewed it up, put it over the armature, glued it in place where it met the clay bits, stuffed it, and sewed it up.

All in all, it was probably a solid 10 hours of work, probably more, but I lost track of time.
artistalight says: Mar 2, 2013. 9:22 PM
well I love it :)
Penolopy Bulnick says: Aug 21, 2012. 9:19 PM
That is crazy cool! Well done :D
AussieAnglerGal says: Aug 18, 2012. 11:13 PM
wow thats so cool!
StuffStephMakes says: Aug 17, 2012. 8:09 AM
Awesome!! You are so talented!! :)
pmahi says: Aug 15, 2012. 2:28 AM
very cool! it looks soooo real!
ceanes says: Aug 14, 2012. 5:26 PM
awesome, very nice
Kiteman says: Aug 14, 2012. 9:48 AM
Hi

This is awesome - when I saw the thumbnail, I thought it was a child in a costume!

You ought to mention your first project over on the New Authors page.
BeeZeeArt (author) in reply to KitemanAug 14, 2012. 4:57 PM
Thanks and I shall do that, thanks for letting me know about it.
Muhaiminah Faiz says: Aug 14, 2012. 1:21 PM
Super cool craft <3 it
ChrysN says: Aug 14, 2012. 10:30 AM
Amazing work, it looks gorgeous!
samalert says: Aug 14, 2012. 10:02 AM
Commendable Effort, Adorable Outcome & Flabbergasted by your Creativity
threadbareandthrifty says: Aug 14, 2012. 5:17 AM
umm, incredible.
would be pretty hard to recreate i think, how did you do the covering for the face? and what did you use for the body is it just very fluffy fabric?!
Really amazing tho!
BeeZeeArt (author) in reply to threadbareandthriftyAug 14, 2012. 7:17 AM
It's not quite as hard as it looks, especially after the first one. It is very time consuming though and it requires you have knowledge of sculpting and sewing/plushie making ahead of time. It's kind of a strange mash up of the two.

The body is just really fluffy craft fur that you can buy a small cut of for like $4 at Hobby Lobby, there's also poly-fill stuffing to give it shape.

I cut a hole in the fur for the face and hot glued the fur to the backside of the face. Then I kind of fluffed it out and used more glue to kind of hide where it meets.

The nice part about using a really fluffy material is it hides a lot of the seams and such so that makes this kind of doll much easier than ones with shorter fur, or humanoid ones with skin toned fabric and no fur.
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