In this quick and simple instructable I'll show you how I made a hanging chicken ornament that sits nicely on your shelf.

For this project you will need a peace of approximately 20 x 10 x 3 cm scrap wood. The runner part from a wooden pallet is ideal.

To start I recommend watching the short video tutorial.

Step 1: Drawing Your Design

Start by drawing your chicken design, I wanted mine to site on a shelf with it's leg hanging over.

Try and keep the bottom flat as possible and back heavy, this will help clucky sit on your dusty shelf nicely without falling off.

I did my drawing freehand but you could always copy my design or do an internet search for some inspiration.

Step 2: Cutting Out

Next simply cut your chicken design out. I used a bandsaw but a fretsaw, scrollsaw or a plain old hand saw would work fine, just follow your lines.

Step 3: Carving

Clamp your work and whittle using a sharp chisel or carving knife. Pay particular attention to the chicken's comb, tail feather, legs and the two fleshy lobes of skin under the beak (wattles).

Give the whole thing a good sanding just to round the corners off.

Step 4: Painting

Once you're happy with the shape of your chicken it's time to get painting.

Paint the whole chicken with white acrylic, this will act as the primer undercoat.

Be as creative as you can with the colors, I used a dirty white for the main body of the chicken, washed out red for the comb & wattles, yellow/orange for the beak and legs.

To make it pop I smudged in a dark grey, a dot for the eye and some light lines for the wings. Once acrylic was dry I lightly sanded the paint back to the wood.

I called it done at this stage and made silly chicken sounds, bock, bock, bock, bock, bock, begowwwwk...

Finally find your chicken ornament a dust free shelf, sit back and enjoy a KFC.