owls | The Blue Brick | Photography and Handcrafts by Shireen Nadir

Posts Tagged 'owls'

‘Cleo’ – the Making of :)

Published January 13, 2013 Needle Felting 4 Comments
Tags: Needle Felting, owls, roving

I apologize for the image heavy post – and remember I’m a complete rookie at this, so I’m sure there are lots of things I could have done better – but here we go!

I got my colours together (obvious, right?) a foam felting board and all my needles.

I rolled up the roving very tightly, folding in the sides as I went to make a ball. Every little while I’d stop and felt the ball for a while, to get it nice and stuck before rolling more. I made the body first.

I made a smaller ball using the same method for the head, and felted the two together by poking the largest gauge needle at the neck joint.

Then I grabbed a chunk of roving, and spread it out nice and fluffy. I positioned this over the body and started felting it over top, to smooth and strengthen the join between head and body.

I used smaller strips of brown felting over the body to start adding detail. Felting is so intuitive – I just kept adding it wherever I thought I needed more until I had a brown back and a little heart-shaped face.

I cut off two small pieces of roving and felted it against the foam board into the shape of wings. I had to flip them once in a while to make sure they didn’t stick to the board. I misted them occasionally – just to help the roving hold it’s shape until it was felted into place. I didn’t get too picky about their shape at this stage.

Then I felted the wings onto the sides – sticking straight out like a penguin because I thought it was funny ;) I could easily have felted them down to the side as well. I kept at them until they were nice and dense, occasionally holding them against the felting board to provide support. When I liked the shape I did the final clean up by trimming off the excess.

To make eyes I made two little black balls by rolling the roving in my hand like play doh, then I felted them on. Then I used the same method, but with white balls and I positioned them a bit lower, to make eyebrows. I made the beak the same way I made the wings – on the felting board first, then adding finer detail once it was on her face and trimming away the excess.

This is how Cleo gets that intelligent expression ;)

A little tuft of roving was cut out and felted, just at the base, to give her a little ‘faux hawk’.

To polish off the eyes I rolled a little cylinder of roving (again, think play doh) and felted it into a circle around each eye, allowing the excess to stick out to the sides like bushy little eyebrows.

Voila! One ugly, yet endearing little barn owl :)

The adventures of Angus and Cleo

Published January 9, 2013 Needle Felting , Photography 4 Comments
Tags: Cleo and Angus, Needle Felting, owls, photography, The Music Garden, toys

I went to sleep on Saturday night and when I woke up these two buggers had snuck into the living room and set up camp. They’re ugly, but they’re my first fluff-babies so I’ve let them stay. We went for a walk in the music garden, and I got to know their deep and complex personalities. Yes, needle felting is definitely my next big obsession.

Angus is a little spectacle owl with a huge personality. He’s camera shy but loves to cuddle given half a chance.

He lives in fear of someone discovering out that he never returns his library books because he likes to chew them into little balls of paper that he hides under his bed.

He likes sleeping with his feet out of the covers to stay cool and eating his bacon with maple syrup.

Cleo is a little barn owl, but lacking in any of the grace that normally comes with being a barn owl.

She’s especially clumsy with crazy glue and saran wrap and once caused a traumatic incident that involved both.

She’s fond of Paul Simon and lemon flavoured deserts and eating the middle of Oreo cookies before putting the end bits back in the box.

Together, they form sort of an awkward couple, but they both love exploring so that’s their common ground.

Big animals make them nervous.

So they hide…

Or try to escape in the post.

On the whole though, they’re pretty easy going.

Yes, I made little toys and spent the afternoon walking around with them and taking pictures. Luckily Tito is on board:

The next post will contain the step-by-step photos of how I made Cleo, for anyone who wants to take a crack at my no-doubt-ass-backward method ;)

BC – Pacific Northwest Raptor Society

Published July 22, 2011 Photography , Travels Leave a Comment
Tags: barn owl, birds of prey, owls, photography

This was one of the most magical parts of our trip to BC – a visit to a sanctuary for birds of prey on Vancouver Island, near the town of Duncan.

I apologize for the image-heavy post, but these birds were so magnificent I couldn’t pare down the photos.

To quote the website on where the birds come from:

“The birds at Pacific Northwest Raptors are mostly captive bred, hatched here or at similar facilities in Canada. There are a handful of raptors here that were not born in captivity but, due to an accident in the wild, are considered non-releasable because they cannot fly/hunt for themselves. We provide medical attention, permanent housing, food and shelter for these birds.”

I thought this part was important too:

“Unless breeding, retired, injured or molting our birds fly free daily. Individually, we let them fly down in the flying area. They tend to do whatever they feel like. We encourage them to fly as much as possible and try to facilitate natural flying and hunting behavior. They come back every day because we care for them, feed them, and respect them. We work with each bird to build a bond of trust and we strive to make each bird happy, comfortable and as healthy as possible.”

This gorgeous snowy owl is a girl – I learned that girls have brown markings on their chest and boys are perfectly white. So even though “Hedwig” is supposed to be a girl – the owl used in the movies was a boy.

This is Elton, and I fell head over heels in love with him. Elton is a spectacled owl and when you try to photograph him he turns his head away from you and closes his eyes. But if you pretend you’re not interested anymore and walk away he chirrups pleadingly until you come back, only to turn away from you again! This owl acts like a real diva, but is a total softie. I’m told he likes to cuddle with his keepers too. Figures.

Here’s the magic part. This is Chloe. Chloe is gorgeous beyond words, a hauntingly beautiful barn owl with a politely curious expression. Tina, who works with the birds every day, took us on a special ‘owl prowl’ through the woods where we got to watch her fly around, returning to our gloves for treats (eg. dead mouse bits).