One of my favorite animals is the owl, and I especially love the Burrowing Owl.  I have a printout of this image of a Burrowing Owl chick on my wall at work.  It makes me smile.  :D

image by David Roach

I've been so inspired by the work of Anya Stone and Kerri Pajutee, two amazing artisans who make the most realistic miniature animals I've ever seen.  I've wanted to make a Burrowing Owl for some time now, so I decided to just hop to it!  Kerri has two great tutorials on CDHM: one for sculpting a bird and another on flocking and feathering.  I used those as a basis to start my mini owl.

I decided to make an adult Burrowing Owl instead of a chick like the photo above.

image by Nature's Pic's Online

I was lucky to find a good photo of the back of the owl, too.

photo by Ecobirder

I sculpted my bird using white polymer clay, though it got fairly dirty as I worked with black wire to make the legs and feet.  The feet look a bit big, but it was the only wire I had and the flocking and feathering will add weight once applied.  To get the bird to stand while baking, I tied some wire around the ceramic tile I use for baking clay.

click image to enlarge

After baking and cooling, I painted the whole piece with light tan acrylic paint.  I also painted the eyes and beak before feathering.  Caution: naked birdie below...

I bought two types of feathers, using the darker ones for the tail feathers and back and using the lighter ones for the breast.  I used embroidery floss to make the flocking.  I cut all but the spotted and striped portions from the feathers.  I followed Kerri Pajutee's tutorial for placement for the most part but tried to use the natural patterns of my feathers to mimic those of the Burrowing Owl.

Here are some photos of my owl as the feathering progressed...

And, finished!  :D

I love him!!!!!  I don't think I did half bad my first time around if I do say so myself.

And, he looks right at home on Baslow Ranch!  :D

Note: I wasn't able to find contact information for a couple of the owl photos, but I have given artist credit.  If these are your photos and you wish them to be removed, please contact me and I'll remove them.