Dough Clay Wise Owl Ornament

There are so many owl lovers in the world; both owls and mushrooms are perennial best sellers at craft shows.

Owls are one of the more complicated of my designs, but well worth learning. You can do this.

Sculpting Design

Knead the dough in your hands as you make the design to push out any air pockets that could cause cracking.

1. Roll a ball of dough into an oval for the body and place on cookie sheet.

2. Roll a slightly larger ball of dough for the head and join onto the body.

3. A triangular like shape will go over the top part of the head, it will look like feathers in the end and give his head depth. Make your shape rather thin. With a knife or edge shaped tool, shape and texture the top knot as illustrated in the photographs.

4. Dip your thumbs in flour and make deep indentation on each side of head, for eye places. These places tend to puff, so make some pin holes in the depressions with a pin, texture around the outside of the head.

5. Roll a small pointed oval for the beak; a tiny drop of water is a must here. The beak fits right at the point of the triangular top.

6. Large pointed ovals make the wings. These wings fit on the side of the owl body under the head. Texture wings with a straw.

7. Tail feathers are sort of fan shaped and fit right up to the bottom of the body. Use some water here to make the pieces seal tight together. Texture your tail with a straw.

8. The claws are little balls of dough placed at the bottom of the body on top of the tail, as shown in the photographs.

For more feathery looking texture on head, wings, and tail feathers, take a soda straw and make half moon indentations all over.

Owls look good with bow ties, buttons, or even a lovely heart.

9. Push a hanger into the top of the owl for hanging onto your Christmas tree. You can use a paper clip or recycled wire to create a hanger.

Baking Your Design

Bake your owl at 200 degrees for estimated 120 minutes. Dough should be hard all the way through. You can also air dry your pieces in the sun until they are completely dry.

Painting & Varnishing

Owls can be left the natural color of the dough, which can be baked a little longer to brown more. But I usually paint them some shade of brown, from very light to very dark. You can paint clothes on your owls and that is adorable. The beak and claws are a yellow orange.

After painting seal your owl with varnish to seal out all moisture. Spray 2 to 3 layers of varnish on both sides.