This was a gift for one of my honorary Aunties. She loves owls, especially tawny frogmouths, which are a type of owl here in Australia, and asked if I would felt one for her.
Here we have it in its natural habitat, blending in rather well. A real tawny frogmouth can camouflage itself to look like a branch, but they're much cuter when they're fluffy.
Apart from the eyes and beak, everything is felted with only a beige-brown and black, and I did my best to create the illusion that I had more colours by mixing the two.
This is felted a bit more loosely than my usual projects – I usually have very solid final products, but I wanted a hairier, softer result this time.
It's not very large and sits comfortably in hands or on a desk:
I took some progress shots with my phone while working on this project, so here's a compilation. See below for an explanation if you want more detail:
I started out making an armature for the feet with copper wire, and then felted them and attached a mound of core wool on the top for the body. I'd joined the feet together with a horizontal stretch of wire, so I could easily attach them by felting around this without the need for glue.
I then started covering the core wool with brown, and added some extra height. After that I had to start on the face because I always like to have a face done while I'm working; I find it easier to create around a face than to later try and match a face to everything else. It looked a big creepy for a while there, but eventually I ended up with something cute.
I then turned to the back view and added a tail and wings, which I felted separately and then attached.
I had a monkish owl for a while as I felted a couple of layers of individual feathers and then covered the remainder of the owl with unfelted hanks of roving, which I rooted in, starting at the bottom and working up towards the top and centre. After that all that was left to do was to trim the furry bits and attach the flyaway eyebrows a bit more.
I love tawny frogmouths and yours is a fine specimen. From beak, to colouring, to whiskers - it came out beautifully. I'm pleased you included progress shots. Really helps to appreciate the underlying construction.
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