We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program

I've been faced with a technical difficulty in the construction of my Faerie Wings.  Without giving too many spoilers, suffice to say that I need to learn how to solder and that my chosen instructor for this task (dear, old Dad) is out of town for the next couple of days.  This creates a bit of a stand still.

But I cannot remain idle, so I will interrupt your regularly scheduled program with a stuffed animal project of mine!

When I got into making stuffed animals, I didn't really have much of an appreciation for how their patterns are drafted.  I figured that since I modify garment patterns all the time, a stuffed animal's pattern shouldn't be that far off.  I couldn't have been more far off from the truth on that count, but as we go, we learn.

But, when I was still naive to this point, a friend of mine asked me to make her a barn owl that was decorated with some gears and of medium cuddleability.  I figured that I could simply modify the face and wings of a penguin pattern I had already tried and it would be fine.  It wasn't quite the case.

This is the penguin that I had previously made.  It was a Valentine's Day gift for my son.

This was attempt #1 of the Barn Owl.  You can see how it still reads as very "penguin".  The head wasn't really tall enough, the facial disk (which is so particular to barn owls) was shaped a little wrong, and the beak is very "off".  I sent pictures of this critter to my friend, promising that if she didn't like it I would give it another go.

So, here is attempt #2 and I am very glad that I gave it another shot.  I elongated the head, smoothed out the heart-shape of the facial disk and redesigned the beak entirely.  My friend has already seen the un-decorated version of attempt #2, but here is the finished critter from the front.

The right side.

The back side.

The left side.

An up-close shot of the face.

Tomorrow I think I'll be tackling some mending that has been haunting me.  It is a piece that I haven't posted here, though, so it should be exciting all the same.