The Spirit of Christmas

Happy Day to you,
I am so excited that the Holidays are just around the corner, especially since I am a huge fan of Christmas for so many reasons. The most important for me is the gift of Gods love in my every being. The second most, is that I can so easily reach my inner child during the Christmas holidays.

I think this is the most creative time for me. So let me be the first (and of course not the last) to wish you the best of times this season. I welcome you to my first Holiday expression of the season with my Snow Owl.

 I made two different heights, one on a pedestal that is about 10 inches tall and another that is 8 inches tall. I originally was planning to make a feathered owl , since online these run very expensive. I kept finding snow owls of all kinds, the pricing was the same, based on height. My owls are 8 inches tall. (I made the owl, by the way) The ones online I found were running about 85.00 just for the owl, nothing else. And if you found an owl this size in a foliage like mine, it went into the 200.00 range. No joke!! Crazy.... so this way I make what I really want to see and would enjoy looking at. :)

 So the owl is made of Styrofoam, I took a 10 inch ball and carved it down to a chunky 8inch bird form. I covered the front of the owl in white fur and the back with white paper. I made look dimensional by using the end of a pencil and crunching the paper into the form of the pencil end. The wings are also paper, but its thicker stock and gave the look I was looking for. Its funny, since I never know what I am going to use or what it will turn out to look like until I'm done.  Crazy...

 I dressed the owl with a black sweater vest, with pearls that crisscross in the front like a corset. I made a necklace with red ribbon and a clock face charm. The one thing I knew from the start, even before I started making the owl, was that it will have a vest or corset and a top hat and ice crystals. So I made the top hat out of black felt. I added a band of white lace that also has crystals. Then I added green flocked leafs and red berries to the side of the hat. At the base of the hat rim I lined it in a string of pearls.

 

 

 Oh, I almost forgot, the eyes are made of straw and plastic eyes I took from some old Halloween crows I was tossing.
The beak is from another bird in my stash that I used for another craft project, they are plastic. I almost went to target to buy some cheap birds for their beaks, but then found some in my stash. Its always nice when I can save some money. :)

 

The bed from which the Owl rests upon is made of layers and layers of different foliage. Holly, flocked leaves, leaves with crystals, berries, pearls, white poinsettia petals, branches, twigs dipped in silver glitter. I also found these long white floral braches that sparkle. I added the flocking, the glitter and all the sparkle to all the foliage.

 

The base, I didn't make it, but I did refinish and repaint and crackled the one below. Its blown glass, but was boring looking, so I paint and crackled it white. I started with an undercoat of brown and a top coat of white. On the taller piece at the top of this blog, I only refinished and painted it white, its made of cast metal so its heavier then this one below.

 

This piece was tons of work, and an absolute joy to make. I am selling these, but I don't think a price could really match the love and attention I placed into this creation.

They are for sale at 85.00, and will be available at our Holiday Gallery in Costa Mesa on Dec 15th. Please email me at bellaluzdesignz@yahoo.com  if you would like more event detail.,

 

Thanks so much for checking this out, have a wonderful week.

Lyn