Owl Polymer Cane - How to not mess up! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Here I am going to tell you what not to do... this was how my Owl cane looked before shrinking, I would of been more than happy with the above picture... OH and on a side note, like my brand new cutting matt? ITS PINK! thanks to selling some crafts I could finally fork out for a semi decent one <3

However this is how it came out. :? Any advice is also welcomed with open arms in the comment section below. However I think it was down to the different consistency of clay as some of my clay colours was harder than others and I reduced it when it was warm too egar! :/

First I will give you steps on how I got to this point, To start off creating the eyes I extruded a circle and wrapped it in black polymer clay. I used two different tones of yellow to add a more detailed effects and a strip of white between.

To make the outsides of the eyes I piled strips of clay ontop of each other and then cut them evenly placing them around the inner eye. I then reduced the cane and cut it in half.

*I AM OWL FACE!*

  Use some yellow clay with a lighter colour for the outer areas and wrap a black strip of clay around the outside. Best off using the pasta machine! try grade 6.  

Next you want to be getting your extruder tool choose two colours you want together and use the lighter colour on the outside. Then you want to wrap that in a layer of black. You then want to be cutting it in half and place them around the beak make sure you place a black of the inner colour just above this gives a more feathered effect.

 Now you will want to get a few strips of yellow clay and place black strips between this will start to form you little owl feets. Next you want to be getting black strips in to fill any gaps then blend two colours (or even 3 depending how daring you are feeling!) together. You are building up the wings here have a lighter colour for the under wing. Make sure you have some clay left for the tail and head!

So once your stick it together it should look a little bit like it dose on the left,  Any clay from the wings keep to one side. pick up your owl now and just see if there are any holes at all visible! if there is you need to put some bits of black clay in between. 

Put the lighter colour under the owl wings and do you remember the left over clay you had? start make a little blob for the tail as seen to the right. Shape it how you see fit and make sure it has enough clay around it to support it enough to not warp.

 This is how it should look once you have put your tail, finished the wings and started working on the head.

 I used scrap clay left over from a butterfly pen I made for the background. I used the top of my left over clay for the head and added gold for the tips. All looks good? Great...

WHOA KILL IT!! KILL IT WITH FIRE, BEFORE IT LAYS EGGS!

Oppps. I think another issue here was that the cane is more circular than the one I built... nevermind one for the scrap pile.