the owl project

This project has ended..

2007-03-19T18:26:00.000+11:00

I am still getting requests for owls so I thought I should post this here. Firstly, thank you very much for your interest :) For various reasons, I have ended the owl project in March 2007. In total 12 owls were adopted.

If you want to make your own please check out Crafting Japanese for the Japanese book with the pattern. I do not have this book - as mentioned, mine are based on traditional chirimen ones I saw while visiting Kyoto - so I will not be able to help you with it. Please use Google!

Please visit me at my main blog and join me in my creative endeavours :)

The last ones #10, #11, #12

2007-03-18T12:47:00.000+11:00

Left to right:

Owl #10 went to live Mipmup in USA.

Owl #12 was going to Adelyn in France but due to some mysterious incident with the post - he is now lost somewhere in between. A similar owl is on the way - let's hope it does not encounter any post incidents ...

Owl #11 went to Irene in Portugal. It has been named Esperanza meaning hope. Well, I hope he brought some cheer to Irene.

Some of my handmade pins went along.

Final ATCs

2007-03-18T12:30:00.000+11:00

Top to bottom, left to right: Cards for Owl #8, #9 and #10.

More owls #8 and #9

2007-03-18T12:01:00.000+11:00

As you may or may not know, I have stopped The Owl Project. In total 12 has been sent (one was lost in the mail to France but it's substitute is on the way - let's hope it arrives safely). Here follows various posts for the remaining owls. A big thank you to those who have join in the game :)

This is owl #8 who went to stay with Julia in Spain. He went with a Californian pin from Charlene. His name is Gustavo and he has already made friends with Julia's cat, Chupito. Looks like he will be enjoying himself in Spain. I am thinking of tapas! Ahh... lucky Gustavo.

This is owl #9 who was recently sent as part of this package. He went to stay with Lyndsie in Canada. Wonder if he will get to meet some moose? Hehe.

Owls that have been received

2007-01-14T09:13:00.000+11:00

It's been long time since this blog has been updated. Anyway, here are pics of owls that have been sent and received for the last 3-4 months.

1. Owl #3, 2. Owl #4, 3. Owl #5, 4. Owl #7 with handmade pin.

Owl #3 went to Babs in California, USA as part of this swap exchange. I sent an Aussie pin to Babs.

Owl #4 went to Didine in Belgium as part of this swappackage. Swap in progress as the package for me is lost. Didine receive Barbara's pin (owl #1).

Owl #5 went to Malin in Sweden as part of this swap exchange. Malin received Babs' handmade pin.

Owl #7 went to Kate in Beverly Hills, USA. Kate paid for the postage :) Kate received a handmade pin from me.

1. ATC for owl #3, 2. ATC for owl #4, 3. ATC for owl #7

I think I will stop sending ATCs with new owls. I should spare people my not very artistic doodles. The owls will still come with a card with their number in the series.

I will post pics/stories from people who have received later - I hope to do them in one go :)

Another batch

2006-12-09T07:16:00.000+11:00

More owls...

:)

2006-10-23T19:24:00.000+10:00

Cross-posted from here

Owls #2, #3, and #4

2006-10-03T19:04:00.000+10:00

... staring wistfully out the window. They are ready to leave the nest and go all over the world soon.

Owl #1

2006-10-01T12:02:00.000+10:00

Quick one:

This is owl #1 and his card with pin from me. He has gone to stay in Graz, Austria with Barbara last month.

We will have his story soon.

Other owls are currently works in progress :) I have solve my pins dilemma, I will make some felt ones myself - once I have sent a few off, I should then have receive other pins.

On Flickr and coming up ...

2006-09-25T20:31:00.000+10:00

I created a group to go with this project on Flickr.
Go join up here if you are on Flickr :)

I tried to play around with Adobe to come up with some buttons/banner for both sites. Sigh, unfortunately, I am no graphic designer.

Anyway, things coming up for this project:

thinking of questions to interview a couple of owls. Any ideas? Please leave a comment if you do.

I realised that I do not have enough pins! I went to buy some over the weekend but fail to find any. I think I may have to buy some pinback buttons or something. I only have 2 pins right now. So I can go on to make Owl #2 and #3 this weekend. Up to owl #6 has been requested but they will have to wait till pins are bought.

I need to blog Owl #1.

Also, anyone interested in the project, please email me on kwoozy (at) gmail (dot) com . Thanks.

Initial six

2006-09-25T19:52:00.000+10:00

These are the initial 6 owls I made sometime in March. They are all handstitched. Six was the maximum I got to before I decided I need to buy a sewing machine - it helps although there are bits that still need to be handstitched.

They are from left to right: Kay, Double-yew, O1 aka Yellow Dots, O2 aka Oxygen, Zed and Y. Yes, not very creative but at least they have names :)

My troop of owls

2006-09-20T19:45:00.000+10:00

This is my troop of owls. There are a dozen of them but you can only see 11 of them in the picture. One is hidden behind the big blue one on the right. They are the first few made by me. Of course, when my sister saw them, she wanted her own troop. I was requested to make 10 for her. But she has only 9 of them because one went to stay with a cousin.

The owls are very special to me because they are the second handmade stuff (the first being origami boxes) that made me realised that crafting can feed my creative urges and hence crafting is worthwhile. I have made things occasionally since young (mostly figuring out how to make boxes and paper bags) but during later years of high school and then uni, it was too hectic studying plus I was too poor to spend money on hobbies and what not (I am sure that is a familiar story :)).

Work being very much left brain, it becomes frustrating at times because I cannot feed the creative side. During one of those times, these owls were created.

The owl at the front is Artic. He is the owl who would like to be PM of all the goodwill owls. He hopes all the owls will vote for him :)

Why and how

2006-09-02T09:22:00.001+10:00

Inspiration and why

It kind of started due to a quip with my sister (who has her
own troop of owls made by me) - we made silly stories about the owls so
anyway I have an owl who wants to be the Prime Minister of all owls. And to be PM, you would actually need more owls. But I only have space for so many.

The owls get to see the world even if I can't.

It's fun. Enough said.

So, one day I had this idea of making owls and then sending them all over the world as goodwill ambassadors. They do not have to vote for my owl to be PM, but it will be appreciated (will post pictures of my troop soon).

My dream is to send off 100 owls. However, realistically speaking it also depends on "demand" and whether I get bored of making them. So a mini target of 20 owls for a start. The owls will come with a handmade card (ATC size) from me.

How does it work

This is open to anyone who would like an owl as long as you are not in Australia.

Available owls will be posted on this blog. I intend to make about 2-4 per month but this really depends on time. ~~Contact me if you are interested in one~~
Sorry, I have ended the project in March 2007. Thank you for your interest :)

If you would like an owl to live with you and be given honorary citizenship of your country, these are the "rules":

Send me ONE and only ONE small badge pin from your place. Your country/place pin will be used to make another owl.

If you are willing to use $3-5 of your time/material/etc to spread some goodwill in return for the free handmade owl.

Please give your owl a name when you received it :)

Write back what you did and/or send me a picture of your owl in its new environment. I will then post it on this blog.

Postal matters

There are currently 2 ways to get the owl from me to you:

If you are currently in a craft swap with me, I can send it as part of the swap. However, since I can only afford 1-2 international swaps per month, it will take me 3-4 years before I reach 100 owls. So I have come up with the next option. I have over-swapped and will not be swapping until July 2007.

If you are willing to pay for postage.

Credit

The owls are based on a traditional otedama pattern. It can be found in a Japanese craft book (will have to check which one). If you visit Kyoto (possibly other parts of Japan), you may also see chirimen owls in souvenir shops.

Welcome

2006-09-02T08:30:00.000+10:00

Welcome to The Owl Project - a project by Kwoozy to send her handmade owls all over the world.