Friday, June 10, 2011

DIY: Owl Lantern


As promised, I am back with the DIY tutorial for the owl lanterns by Kat. She made this step by step tutorial with images specially for My Owl Barn readers. So please leave your comments letting us know what do you think and if you have an occasion in mind when you can see yourself making these little guys. May be, for birthday parties, weddings, etc.?

The following pictures and tutorial is by Kat.

Hi everyone, I had owl lanterns made for my wedding in March. Each owl was handcrafted using wire and beads. There are many wire crafters in South Africa, and we contacted one to have 15 or so owls made. Later my mom and I covered the owls in newsprint. They were made into lanterns that were used during my wedding weekend, held over 3 days at the Mvubu Lodge in South Africa. Each owl was gifted to a person or couple at the wedding, and they make such lovely decorations, lit or unlit. They were all quite large, between 30 and 40 cm tall.


I have created this DIY, to show how you can make your own little owls.

You will need:
* 2 types of metal wire. 1 thin and flexible, the other thicker and also flexible.
* 1 pair of pliers.
* small beads of your choosing. Make sure they can be threaded onto the thin wire.
* wallpaper glue
* newsprint or tissue paper


Start by forming the outline shape of the owl, and joining the two ends of the wire by twisting a length of thin wire around both, securing them together.


Attach a wire circle to the owl form, creating a 3 dimensional body and head. The number depends on the height of your owl. For mine, which was small, I created three. Secure each ring to the owl frame with the thin bendy wire. Create “supports” by linking up the circles with other pieces of wire that run vertically, from the head down. You can create as many circles and supports as you like, the more you have, the more sturdy your owl will be. You can see in the larger owls made for my wedding that the body form had more wire structuring. Create the eyes by spiralling the ends of a length of wire and attaching it across the front of the owl’s face.


To make the beak, bend some wire into a “v” shape, leaving a small length on each side. Thread the beads onto another length of thin wire, and weave it across the “v”. Attach the beak to the 1st circle of wire on the owl that forms its “neck”.



Now that you have completed your wire owl frame (don’t forget to make a tail out of one of the wire supports!) you can begin to cover it in paper. Prepare your wallpaper glue by following the instructions on the packaging.



Once you have the wallpaper glue ready, you can dip your paper in, soaking it, use your finger to scrape off excess glue and layer it over the owl frame.


Completely cover the owl, only leaving the eyes and beak exposed. Leave the owl to dry somewhere in the sun, or in a dry place. It may take a few hours, depending on how much paper you layered on, or how large your owl is.

Feel free to experiment, by adding on wings, and different shaped beaks. The owls were a big hit at the wedding, and they worked well as design elements during the night and day!

Thank you, Kat! I hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial. I see you on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Kirra Jamison

"Last Star"
"Dream Catch Me 2"
"Lucky Bird"
"Over the Moon"
"The Sea Was Red and the Sky Was Grey,
I Wonder How Tomorrow Will Ever Follow Today"
"When I Was a Dreamer"


"Throw Me a Line If I Reach It In Time, 
I’ll Meet You Up There Where the Path Runs Straight and High"
My new favorite artist is an Australian illustrator Kirra Jamison. She graduated from the Queensland College of Art with First Class Honours in 2006 and soon became an established artist. She has done six solo exhibition and has had her work featured in magazines such as Vogue Living. Her "usual decorative work, exuding mythical creatures and magical landscapes, has taken a turn to intricate psychedelic illustrations. While some pieces are minimal, there’s no shortage of meticulous detail in her latest series" - Surrender Star. I want her owls in my life.


Danica Studio: Zaza

danica-studio-zaza

Danica Studio's new fun collection Zaza featuring monkey, birds, rabbit, hedgehog and owl. The range includes:
1. tote
2. cushion
3. changing pad
4. kneel pad
5. dinnerware 
6. kids apron

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Owl Themed Wedding in South Africa



If you remember the Owl Lover Calendar 2011 then you would know Kat Cameron. She is a very talented artist who contributed to the calendar and is one of my all time favorite. She recently got married in South Africa and sent me her owl themed wedding pictures which I can't wait  to share with you.



The bride noticed this “owl” sign on the road to her wedding venue and felt it was rather a good omen, since owl motifs were used throughout the stationary and other elements at the wedding.





It's no surprise that Kat designed her own wedding invitations which allowed her to add some of her personal touch to them and include passion for drawing. She drew those two adorable owls on the tandem bicycle, and painted them in beautiful watercolors. 



The owls were on everything - the wine labels, wedding programs, the animation Kat created for the guests and stationery. 




The owl lanterns are my favorite part which were made with wire, paper, glue and some colorful beads. 


I asked Kat if she could share how were they made. She happily agreed to do an DIY for us which I'll post tomorrow . So don't forget to stop by, you won't be sorry!

Owl Lamp by White Rabbit England

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lamp2

This is not exactly what I had in mind when I started to search for night lamps. These are the most adorable lamps I have seen in a very long time. It's hard for me to say which one I like the most. I do love the owl. But the bunny lamp is killing me! These are made of bone china and give off soft glow when lit, a perfect addition to a kid's room or kids at heart.

{from here

Sleepy Logs



I am smitten with these hand painted sleepy logs by Rabbitportal. The sleeping owl would look so cute on a book shelf or in a fireplace, not for burning, of course!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Swoon, Alison Corrie and Solovei: Cut Paper Installation

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alison-corrie6

alison-corrie3

alison-corrie5

alison-corrie2

Swoon, Alison Corrie and Solovei created this massive paper installation in collaboration at Black Floor Gallery, Philadelphia. The installation was for artists to create "La Boca Del Lobo" which means "mouth of the wolf" in Spanish and that's "exactly what artists Swoon, Solovei and Alison Corrie have teamed up to create: the "mouth," or doorway, into a mythical wonderland of temples, wolves and blood. The creepy-beautiful, Narnia-esque effect comes from intricate, snowflake-like cut paper installations that hang like curtains from Black Floor's ceiling." - Citypaper.

The patience and all the hard work it must take to create something like this is just mind-boggling. The work is so detailed and intricate that you can actually make out the human heads, patterns, animals, birds and owls. You can see more pictures here.

Antii Sullivan

morse-code-owl

Morse Code Owl by Antii Sullivan. She is a textile designer and illustrator from UK with an honors degree from Winchester School of Art. From her profile : "I can’t wait until I can show everyone my collection!" and I can't wait to see more from her!

Forest In the Bedroom




A beautiful forest mural by Suzanne in her bedroom. Those overlapping painted branches look so real which she decides to cover with some young green leaves at the later point. For now, she is contended with an owl perched on them. Not any owl, an owl with glow-in-the-dark eyes! Amazing! An owl this stunning wouldn't bother me in my room, in fact I would stare at it all night long!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Collection: Owl Quilts

quilt1
Val
quilt3
Olga Norris
quilt4
Andrea Zuill
quilt2
Aputsiaq
quilt5
Andrea Zuill
quilt7
Jacqueline Stoner
quilt6
Jillytacy
quilt8
Inci
owls-quilt
Cynthia
P.S. Last day to enter the giveaway to win the wooden owl studs. Click here to enter now!