What a Hoot! - Owl Sculpture

A well-read owl.

Way back in December (yeah, we're talking about salt dough again) I made a little owl sculpture and showed a preview of it in the post titled Crafting With Kids. The poor little guy was unfinished up until now.

Ingredients:

• Salt dough owl sculpture (the recipe is here)
• Silver & black acrylic paint
• Mod Podge or your favorite sealer
• Two self-stick rhinestones
• Paintbrush
• Paper towel

The first thing you're going to need is an owl. This little guy was easy to make. It's a ball with a smaller dough on top. A tiny triangle for the beak and a few details sketched in with a toothpick (or use your thumbnail like I did). Make a couple of indentations on either side of the beak for the eye sockets. Bake it. Sorry I don't have any step-by-step photos of the process, but it really was easy.

After your owl is baked and cooled down, give it a coat of silver paint. Let it dry.

Give your bird a coat.

I really wanted it to look like the owl was dug up in some archeological dig in Europe. Specific, I know. So the owl needed to be worn and aged to perfection. Working in small patches, apply the black acrylic paint.

Aging not-so-gracefully.

Rub the paint off almost immediately with a paper towel. Try not to rub too hard or the silver might come off. If that happens, reapply the silver and let it dry before proceeding.

Be careful with the aging process.

Time to seal it up. Give the owl two (or more) coats of sealer. I used Mod Podge Matte. I really should buy stock in the Plaid company.

Seal it with two coats of Mod Podge.

Time for the sparklies. I used rhinestones that already had sticky backs, but if you can't find those just use some glue. 

An owl needs his eyes.

Now you're all finished. All you need to do is find someplace for him to live. Mine stays on my craft desk just because he makes me smile every time I see him.

Hanging out on top of my hair pin basket.

And, I promise you I only have one project left from December's salt dough.