Hobbledown children’s adventure park and farm in Epsom commissioned us to make a giant barn owl. These are such beautiful creatures and we thoroughly enjoyed making our puppet. As it needed to be super strong we made the head out of fibre glass and the body out of nylon tubing and rip-stop. We delivered him to Hobbledown on Good Friday, and worked with Jon, one of the staff, who did an excellent job of learning how to perform his first giant puppet. The owl has been used in the park throughout the holidays, and we believe will have lots of outings during the summer as well.
It’s a great place to visit with lots of amazing artwork, carpentry and, of course, real live animals. Including some of our owl’s very close relatives!
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- Original design for Hobbledown
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- The clay sculpture
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- Sculpting the body and wings
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- The owl tries his wings
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- Close-up of face
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- Test-flight outside our workshop
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- Barn Owl delivered to Hobbledown
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- Jon rehearses parade route
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- Some lovely puppeteering by Jon
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- Our owl joins his family at Hobbledown
Watch the owl fly HERE.