Work in Progress: Blue Jay Puppet

So I've been working on my Blue-Jay stop motion animation puppet for some time now.
For some reason I thought I could finish this up in a day or two... but now its day 5. I guess I was being unrealistic, considering the complexity involved here. Most my crafts are essentially 2d, but here it is. My work in progress.

I began by using a pink piece of foam insulation I found on the street and making the body. I made a pipe cleaner neck and covered it with this fabric, but the babushka wasn't giving me the flexibility I needed.

Further along now, I've fashion some pipe cleaner legs, and made a little face with magnets I planned on attaching a beak and eyes too later. I did a quick animation test to see if I could get the bird pecking at the ground, which is did ok, the the whole structure was kinda wobbley. I decided to take a step back.

I attached the bird to a the wire neck of an old lamp which I can screw to my desk, making the whole thingmore stable for animation and able to leap into flight. Also, after a trip to the dollar store for fake flowers I have some nice brown stems I fashioned into legs and feet. There is wire inside so the can be posed to some degree. Also I made a nice white fuzzy under belly.



I fashioned some outstretched wings, out of a simple card paper and pipe cleaners. I ran a quick test to see if they'll give me the flexibility I need, and it seems okay.


Many many hours later, I have reshaped the head and added a beak and magnet eyes.


A detail of the Beak. Look it moves!... although it doesn't rest completely closed... which I haven't decided whether that's a problem... ayway, its made out of FEMO, cause you are curious.
I have made two sets of wings. Above are the wings at rest. They are made with a combination of card paper, fabric, felts, faux flowers and a blistering amount of hot glue.


Here are the wings stretched out. Pretty wild. I am pretty happy with the results.


So, I still have more work to to on this, such as;
1-Feathering the face and making it look all nice. I want to make a few sets of eyes, one that squint, and are completely closed.
2-Problem solving the neck. I think I'll try hiding the wire with some loose feather roughage, as to not obstruct the movement.
3-The tail... which birds spread an manipulate to control their flight paths. I'm not sure if I should worry about this detail... but mentioning it seems to make me more accountable.


And finally when I've made the whole thing, I have to make a replica that is mountable on a brassiere, like so...