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Xenia Emelyanov makes wonderful polymer clay jewelry. She generously shares her instructions with her followers. Here is a DIY instruction on how to make an owl pendant.
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This polymer clay instruction is for those who have some experience in working with it.
The owl was inspired by Hedwig the snowy owl that belonged to Harry Potter. .
To make this owl you will need:
- Polymer clay (white and black).
- A baking tray.
- An x-acto knife.
- Carving tools.
- Metal findings.
- A rolling pin.
- A lacquer
- A toaster oven for backing polymer clay.
Take some polymer clay, squish it and roll with a rolling pin or a pasta machine.
I made my own owl eyes that placed on the top of my future owl, then I used a needle to outline a contour of the pendant. The white clay gets dirty during work, but do not worry about that, you won't see this when you are finished.
Cut the owl out with your x-acto knife.
Use your fingers to smooth out the edges of the pendant, then start giving it the dimension.
Insert the bails and cover them with the polymer clay.
Add pieces of clay to raise some parts of the owl (as shown) to give it a relief. Smooth them out.
Insert the eyes.
Form the eyelids and start developing the owl's face by using a wax carver with a boll point.
Add some extra polymer clay to form the feathers around the owl's eyes. Use the black clay to form the owl's beak. Use small pieces of the black clay to make the spots on the feathers. Check the owl pictures in Internet to achieve a more realistic look.
Use a needle to form tiny facial feathers. Note, that the polymer clay looks nice and white again where it was textured (if it got dirty before).
Add the owl's feet. Look at their position in the picture. I tried to give my owl a dynamic pose, so one foot is in the air while the other stretches down.
Add some black spots on the owl's side:
I textured the owl's body with a thicker needle to form larger feathers than those on its head:
The black spots are added to the owl's feet, plus I sculpted the talons:
Here you can see that the feet are also textured at this point. Then I start working on the tail feathers:
I drew the lines on the feathers using my needle. Then I made thing rolls that I put in the middle of each feather.
It is time to start working on the wings. I used my ball point carver to form the end feathers. I made separately and attached other feathers to the wings. Do not forget about the black lines on the ends of the feathers!
Check the owl pictures again to make sure that your owl looks realistic while you are attaching the feathers. The closer the feathers to the body the smaller they are. The smallest feathers are not attached, but formed with a ball point carver:
Check the whole pendant to see if it is missing the texture anywhere. Bake your owl if you are hapy with your work.
Xenia Emelyanov
Online shop (Russian)
Youtube (Here you can watch this DIY as a slide show or a video)
