Here is a commissioned owl that was asked for a while ago and needed before Christmas. done and done. I thought about a mouse in it's claws but this one is good as is. Next one, since I have atleast 1 or 2 more to make.  I only made 3 or 4 different sets of eyes for this guy. one I liked more but it didn't work out shape wise. his head is built off of a bearing and spins fully around.  hopefully my photography is better but I messed it up again. I've spilled enough beers, and stomped enough bulbs tonight. Jeesh......next time....    enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is really cool, Aric. I like how you hide a lot of the welds. Those spoon handles on a mower blade (?) make great feathers. You can make horned owls like this, but we don't get them in Australia so I have to content myself with the round faced barn owl types.

A nice touch to have the head swivelling on a bearing. So what is the head assembly and beak??

Australian Owl

 

Thanks Darryl. 

Yup those are fork and spoon handles on lawnmower blades. The blades looked too plain on their own.  The head is an assembly of a large bolt and nut through a bearing. The bolt/nut part is welded to the body and there is a cv axle? race welded to the outer of the bearing for welding the head parts to. The beak was just forged out round bar stock. 

You can make horned owls. It would be more exotic.  

Marc, my second look at that owl I noticed the crow.  

That is simply beautiful my friend, you do some incredible work. I really like the use of the washers and overlaying them as you work around the piece instead of just butt welding each washer to the next. I provides a great depth to the work.

Thanks CT! The key is to start at the bottom and work your way up. Takes some eyeballing of where you will end up at, and just welding the top of each washer lets the next one up hide the weld a bit.  Takes a bit of patience too lol. 

That's by far the best owl garden sculpture I've seen in a long time, Daswulf! I love owls, they're such interesting and beautiful creatures. How many toes does your owl have? I can't quite tell in the pictures. Owls have a neat feature that lets them swivel their third toe (the outermost front one) backwards, so they can have two toes forward, two toes back, or three forward and one back. Usually you will see them in 3-1 mode while perching; they switch to 2-2 mode as they dive down on their prey, because it grips the prey better. Aren't owls cool?

Awesome job!

Thanks Andrew.  Um, well, now that you mention that...  I only gave him 3 toes  perhaps I didn't look at enough references.  Owls are really cool birds but I will admit that I don't know a whole lot about them. The reference I was looking at had the owl perched with 2 toes forward. 

All in all the new owner is thrilled with it and I can do better on the next one. 

Thanks Dcav. 

That's ok, it's a very easy mistake to make  If it makes you feel any better, our local high school has a HUGE owl mural in the gym (their mascot is an owl), and they made almost the same exact mistake....

Adult great horned owls range in length from 43 to 64 cm (17 to 25 in), and possess a wingspan of 91 to 153 cm (3 ft 0 in to 5 ft 0 in). Females are somewhat larger than males. Depending on subspecies, maximum weight can reach 2,503 g (5.518 lb)

The legs, feet and talons are large and powerful. Tarsal length is 54–80 mm (2.1–3.1 in).

The average foot span of a fully spread foot, from talon to talon, is around 20 cm (7.9 in). Great horned owls can apply at least 300 pounds per square inch (PSI) of crushing power in their talons, a PSI considerably greater than the human hand is capable of exerting. In some big females, the gripping power of the great horned owl may be comparable to much larger raptor species such as the golden eagle.

Reference: Wikipedia

Thanks for the fun facts Glenn. They sound a bit bigger then I thought. Next one will be more menacing  

We had a great horned owl nesting in the "antenna barn" when I was working for NRAO,  got a good look at it when I climbed into the dish of an antenna being worked on----80' tall and 80' wide dish, the barn only has 3 sides so lots of fly room.   My current job I get to see some cute tiny burrowing owls that like to live in prairie dog holes along the road to the border.

Thanks for the pic, Marc. That looks like a Powerful Owl, the biggest we get here. I didn't notice the unfortunate crow until second look either. The ones we see most here are Frogmouth Owls - don't know if you get them down your way.

Had to look up frogs mouth owls. Aus that would make for a cute sculpture. 

Thomas hope it wasn't a close encounter haha. 

Australia’s Owls

Australia has nine species of owl. They fall into two genera, Ninox (hawk-owls and boobooks) and Tyto (barn owls and masked owls). The four species of Ninox(Rufous Owl, Powerful Owl, Barking Owl and Southern Boobook) all have large, yellow eyes and a hawk-like face. The five species of Tyto (Masked Owl, Sooty Owl, Lesser Sooty Owl, Grass Owl and Barn Owl) all have a heart-shaped facial disc. Some species, like the Boobook and Barn Owl, are widely distributed across Australia, while others, like the Lesser Sooty Owl, have a restricted distribution. Australia’s owls are more often heard than seen.

 

The Great Horned owl is Bubo Virginianus, a different species. The do have some similarities. 

Nope it was when I was new and getting the grand tour of the facility and our guide was a birdwatcher and so we had to climb up the antenna to see it.  Later the new people were going through the museum's gift shop and were talking about climbing around an 80' dish antenna...the staff didn't recognize us as we were *new* and were about to call the sheriff until finally someone mentioned our guide's name---safety officer for the site---and they relaxed.

We have a pair of Barred owls aka Hoot owls that hang around the farm.  Very cool to listen to and watch at night.

I havnt seen an owl around my parts for years but my friend has them all over up in the mountains. hence he wants a sculpture too.

another use for owls---Marty Feldman sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlPAVm8Gl6M

 

Lol. Din din eh? 

Judging from the umbrella my owl might be a little chewy. 

T. P.

You ARE very naughty. After watching the Feldman video I had to change me nappy!

SLAG.

That Great Horned Owl has a character face. Wish we had horned owls here - they make more interesting sculptures. I suppose I could try one anyway - don't have to restrict myself to Australian critters! We often hear Boobook owls here, though I have never seen one.

Here's a Tawny Frogmouth that lobbed onto our veranda rail recently:

That's a cute little bugger Aus.  Yeah there are no regulations saying you can't make whatever you want, or to embellish something. 

He's telling you to use his good side!