Snowy and Bubo go to Boston...

The Snowy owls I've spent 10 days on so far, took a recent hiatus while I was laid low with a winter lurgie, but they are back and almost finished, in terms of the painstaking pinning. They will soon be extracted from the surrounding tulle and backed with silk and then pinned to foam core before mounting and framing.

I'm thinking of calling this intimate pair, 'Snowy & Bubo - after Edward Lear c.1843' - Snowy as they are Snowy owls and Bubo as their latin name is Bubo scandiacus.

There are some very precious and unique materials used to re-create Edward Lear's watercolour, including; antique needlelace collar from Belgium, for the black and white owl, which I purchased at an Embroiderer's Guild market; a vintage lace doily for the body of the white owl which has been pinned to my studio wall for at least five years; Hungarian black and gold 1920's 'flapper' lace from Budapest, which I purchased on Etsy, as highlights on the black and white owl and for the rock on which it is perched; Hungarian silk embroidery is placed under the 'flapper' lace to give the rock form and under-colouring; Japanese gold couching for the eye and French Chantilly lace for the markings on the black and white owl; a raised floral lace for the top of the branch, which came from a vintage dress which a friend gave me; and a very unusual Irish (I think) long thread-work, cotton doily for the face of the white owl.

The owls will soon be migrating to Boston USA for exhibition with Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, later in the year. My plan is that they will travel with me in my suitcase to Mexico, NYC and finally to Boston where I will have them framed.

These are the owls at day 10 - just before cutting off the tulle and below is a link to my journal entry on the website.

louisesaxton.com/journal