 1) Roll six small snakes for the claws and place them as shown here. |
 2) Wad up the foil and shape it so it looks like a pecan. Be sure to really compress it very tight to reduce air bubbles. Cover it with a thin layer of clay. I use medium-thin on my pasta machine. That's about 1/16th inch (1.6mm) thick. Place the body just at the back tips of the claws. |
 3) For leggings, cut two pieces of clay in a triangle. The width is as wide as the front tip of the claws and length is about 1/3 of the body. Cut the "upper" 1/3 of the leggings at a more acute angle than the lower part. |
 4) Using your molding tool, smooth and sculpt the leggings. |
 5) Now cut a wedge for the tail. It should be about half as tall as the body and the bottom of the wedge as wide as the body. |
 6) Using your fingers, soften the edges. Take your needle tool and scallop the lower edge, then draw lines up from the scallops as shown above. |
 7) Place the tail on the lower third of the body's backside so about half of it is extended out behind. Using your fingers and/or your molding tool, smooth and blend the top of the tail until you cannot see the join. |
 8) Roll out a ball of clay about half the size of the body. If you make your owl any bigger than mine, use foil as the interior for the ball and cover it with a thick layer of clay, making the layer about 1/4" (6.3mm) to 1/2" (12.7mm) thick. |
 9) Pinch the clay around one side of the ball as shown above and then, using your needle tool, scallop the edges to simulate the owl's ruff. |
 10) Place the ruff on top of the body and press it firmly in place. |
 11) Using manicure scissors (or whatever cutting tool you prefer), cut out two teardrop shaped pieces of clay from a sheet rolled out on the thick setting of your pasta machine, about 1/8" (3.2mm) thick. They should be almost 2/3 as long as the body is tall and the widest part of the teardrop should be as wide as the body. Place these symetrically on each side of the body making sure they overlap the ruff a little bit. |
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