Someone gave me a couple of hollow plastic owls. It happens. I sawed one of them in half and used it as a mould for this statue, which is 50 cm (20 in) high. I stuck the pieces down with wallpaper paste. When that had dried I pressed cement grout into the gaps (white for the body, grey for the head and base). Then I filled the rest of the mould with a concrete mix, with a wire loop set in it, to hang the owl to a wall. In fairness, the mould was never meant to be used this way, and some of the shards came loose when I prised the cast out of it. Also I had to build up the head and ears afterwards. The final step was to wash off the wallpaper paste and grout the gaps that remained. The shards used are fragments of tile and dishes. The yellow glass eyes are made from a fine bowl which our friend Pauline brought home from the States, but later broke. back to thumbnails to next gallery (catflaps)