New life in a pond - with tutorial

The Homyachok scrap challenge about spring in a circle was at the back of my mind when I started with this project yesterday. Halfway through my project when I looked again at the challenge requirements, I realized that the challenge had expired and the next one, 'NEST' was on. So I modified a bit and here is the result. 

I am so happy and thrilled with the result as it has come out better than I had thought. This is a centerpiece representing a pond with a lotus flower and leaves. The clever duck has made its nest on the edge between some long grass. The  mother duck is with three little ducklings that have just hatched with two in the water and one still in the nest. There are broken egg shells in the nest and one whole egg that is ready to hatch any moment! The mother duck is taking its newborn ducklings for a first swim in the pond.

I am linking this project to

1. Craft Room - In the garden
2. Artistic Inspirations - Challenge 34, Fantasy
3. Fussy and Fancy - Spring Days
4. Pin and Tack - Spark your creativity
5. Creative Craft Challenges 2 - For the kids
6. Milk Coffee Challenge - Anything but square
7. Unstampabelles Challenges - #22 Anything but a card
8. Through the Craft Room Door - April 2-8 TTCRD Challenge
9. Homyachok-scrap-challenge : Nest and In a Circle

                

                

This time while making the project I took an extra effort to take snaps of the steps. So here is the tutorial of the project. As I was looking at images of real ducklings and ducks, I had to do hit and trial to come up to the correct dimensions for each part. 

I have used self cut paper using the hand shredder.

Pond Frame

Blue strips (3 mm) - 40 strips of 30 cm each

Pink strips (3 mm) - 40 strips of 30 cm each

I started with rolling the strips into loose coil. Then I pinched these into teardrops and joined them in a chain. These I then connected and this formed the frame of the pond.

    

Duckling 

    Supplies for 1 duckling

Yellow strips (3 mm) - 2 strips of 30 cm each

Yellow strips (1.5 mm) - 2 strips of 15 cm each

    Orange strips (1.5 mm) - 2 strips of 8 cm each

    Yellow strip (6 mm)  - 1 strip of 15 cm, fringed very finely

    Small black beads - 2

Start with rolling the yellow strips into tight coils and the orange strip into a slightly loose tight coil (just release the tight coil slightly without letting it loosen out completely)

 

    Now using the 3D dome (or any spherical shape) to shape the tight coils into hemispheres. Do this for one larger yellow coil and 2 smaller yellow coils.

Note that the dome should be smaller than the tight coil. In this picture as the dome C is larger than the tight coil, I have used the smaller dome B as shown in the picture above.

With the remaining larger yellow coil, shape it into a cone using a conical shape as a pencil. 

Now push one end of the tip to one side so you get a shape as a horn. Be careful while doing this because it is easy to pull too hard and let the inner coils escape out. If this happens the best is to start again with a new strip.

Always apply glue to the inside surface of any dimensioned shape so that it well keep its shape when the glue dries.

For the beak, shape the orange coils into a heart shape and give it some dimension with your nails. 

Join together the 2 bigger pieces (body)  and the 2 smaller pieces (head).

Now start wrapping the fringed tip on the body of the duckling starting from the narrow tip end.

Continue wrapping till the complete piece is covered with the fringed strip.

Now glue together the body, head and the beak. For the beak, first stick together the two heart shaped pieces at the wide end so that the narrower triangular side forms an open beak.

Now glue the beads and the duckling is ready.

Duck

Supplies for the duck

While strip (3 mm) - 1 strip of 150 cm (I joined together 5 strips of 30 cm each)

While strip (7 mm) - 1 strip of 150 cm (I joined together 5 strips of 30 cm each)

    While strip (1.5 mm) - 2 strips of 30 cm each

    While strip (1.5 mm) - 2 strips of 60 cm each

    Orange strips (1.5 mm) - 2 strips of 15 cm each

    White strip (3 mm)  - 1 strip of 30 cm

    Small black beads - 2

Make tight coils with the 2 long (150 cm) strips, the two narrow 30 cm strips and the one 30 cm strip. Make a very loose coil with the two 60 cm strips. Make slightly loose coils with the orange strips and shaping them into heart shape, make the beak as described in the steps for the duckling.

(In the picture here the two larger coils are both of 3 mm width. but I had to later replace one of them with the 7 mm strip)

And this is the reason why! Because the strips were too narrow, I was not able to shape them properly into a conical shape. So I had to start again with a wider strip.

The remaining steps for making the body and the head are the same as that for the duckling. The only difference here is that I inserted a tight coil between the head and the body. For the wings, create shaped teardrops with the 2 loose coils.

And assemble the beak and the wings on the duck like this. Glue on the two black beads for eyes.

Nest

Supplies for the nest and its content

Brown strips - Random size and number

While strips (1.5 mm) - 8 strips of 15 cam each

    Yellow strips (3 mm) - 2 strips of 30 cm each

    Yellow strip (6 mm) - 1 strip of 10 cm fringed very finely

    Orange strips (1.5 mm) - 2 strips of 8 cm each

    

For creating the nest randomly stick together brown strips on dome shape creating a nest. Create tight coils with the while strips to form the egg halves. Stick two halves to make one egg and let the other halves remain as halves. Shape the yellow strips into tight coils and create domes and stick together forming a ball. Cover it with the fringed strip. Make beaks from the orange strips and glue it to the yellow fringe covered ball. Glue the egg halves, the one full egg and the duckling hatch-ling in one half of the egg randomly in the nest.

Water

For the water effect, cut out a yellow circle that is slightly larger than the inner gap in the frame. I have used a normal office ink pad and sponge to give on water effect on the circle.

Lotus flower and leaves

For the lotus leaves, I created triangles from 1.5 mm green strips and joined them together to make a circle. I also husked a circle but forgot to take any pictures :( 

For the lotus flower, I used 1.5 mm pink and while strips. The top two layers are made with 7.5 cm long strips for each petal and the bottom layer is made with 15 cm long strips for each petal. I have made the teardrops by coiling together a pink and white strip to give a shaded effect.  A cone is placed inside the top layer petals.

Assembly

I first glued the circular paper (the water body) inside the frame.

To make the duck and ducklings stand erect, I stuck tiny circles under their bodies. The nest is stuck on the border of the pond on the frame. I inserted and glued some green diagonal cut strips on the pink and blue pieces of the frame surrounding the nest. The two tiny ducklings are close to the nest and the mother duck is further away all in swimming in a line. The lotus leaves are on one side of the pond along with the lotus flower.

Hope you enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed making it!

If you find my work inspiring and create something similar, please quote my work and blog in your post. I would also appreciate if you leave a comment. All budding artists do need a pat on the back! Thanks for visiting!