It is not necessary to use only ready-made solutions to decorate your summer cottage. You can easily make a handmade sculpture. A little skill and imagination is all you need.
To create a flamingo you will need:
- neck - corrugated hose, about 0.6 m;
- torso - optimal - 10 l canister with opening on the side. If you can't find one, use a 5 liter bottle;
- feathers - 9 bottles of 5 liters, you can stock up on bottles of 2 liters;
- the frame of the neck and legs - 3 metal rods, for the legs - 1.1 m each, for the neck - 0.8 m.
- the head is a piece of foam, 15 by 20 cm, you can make it from half a 2-liter bottle.
- self-tapping screws;
- thin wire for connecting parts;
- acrylic paint (pink or red, white, black);
- brushes.
Important! Wash all bottles before work with warm soapy water. Better to keep them in this solution for an hour or so. If this is not done, dirty areas will quickly make themselves felt. This is necessary for degreasing; instead of soap, washing powder is suitable. The paint will lay down much better after washing.
Step-by-step instruction
First of all, make the bird's body. Place the canister or bottle horizontally; in the first case, the lid should be on the bottom right (see photo). Now make a small hole in the lid so that the rod goes through. On the sides at the bottom of the canister, make holes for two legs, then insert the legs-rods there.
Next, you need to make the plumage of our flamingo. To do this, cut the bottles into pieces, they should resemble feathers in shape. To do this, take the bottle and remove the top and bottom of the bottle. Next, cut it lengthwise. The more feathers you make, the more beautiful our bird will look in the end, so do not be lazy) If you use a thick enough canister, then do all the details with a leg that will attach it to the body. If you have a 5-liter bottle as a body, then it is better to fasten the elements with a wire, making holes in the right places with an awl (both on the body and on the feathers). You can also do with a furniture stapler, so the work will go faster. Before you start attaching all this to the body, paint the blanks and wait until they dry. If you don't have pink paint, mix red and white. Distribute feathers of different sizes in bags. This will make it more convenient to work in the future. Attach feathers to the body of the flamingo using one of the methods listed above.
On the neck, i.e. a long rod that goes to the bird's head, which is not yet ready, put on a hose that has been previously painted in the desired color. Fix the ends with screws and glue.
Now you need to make the head. If you can sculpt, use plaster. If desired, the head can also be made of wood, but this is all quite complicated. I'll cover two simpler options. In the first case, you will need a bottle, cut off the bottom of it, you will only need the top one. Paint it pink and then paint the eyes and beak. To make the bird look more realistic, you can saw off the lid and make the beak out of plaster, inserting it later into the neck. The second option is to cut the head out of the styrofoam. In my opinion, it is easier and the flamingo will look more realistic.
At the end of all the work, you can decorate the bird as you wish. For example, paint the legs. If you wish, you can put the flamingo on a metal base and attach it to it, or even weld it on to make it more stable.
I recommend that you only take your bird out into the garden in good weather, as it will last much longer.
