What do you do when you want your own ostrich but don’t know where to get one? Exactly, you build one yourself.
Pet is a Dutch artist who collects collections. He has a full storage house with many cubic meters of stuffed animals in all the colors of the rainbow, countless Barbies, boxes full of egg holders, massive amounts of cards and black and white photos, boxes full of old cassette tapes and much much more. It is like the ultimate kid’s playground. We as the Big Bug Collection collaborated with Pet. He let us use any material we wanted to build something that preferably would fit within his Robinson Crusoe themed exhibition.
Tomas and I decided to make an animal for the island, and an ostrich seemed like a fun quirky animal to build. We used a wooden frame and chicken wire for the structure, cards as feathers, lighters for the legs and neck, yellow Kinder Surprise toy shells for the paws, a wooden shoe for the beak, egg holders and light bulbs for the eyes and buttons to cover his head.
Every once in a while I start a project that while I am at it, I think to myself ‘what on earth did I get myself into?’ Like when your fingers have multiple burns from attaching buttons with a glue gun and you have been tying hundreds of lighters with iron wire for hours straight. But then everything is finished and you would do it all again. I think good projects have a tension between fun and frustration. Sometimes you need to push yourself to achieve awesome things. Only then you accomplish things you didn’t know you could. Only with real effort and hard work you can really appreciate your accomplishments.
Do you agree? Have you ever felt a combination of fun and frustration in the process of a project?
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15 Comments
Miss Jojangles
May 22, 2013 at 13:40
This is AMAZING!!!!! I can’t believe you made it! Does he have a name?! XXX
Magical Day Dream
May 24, 2013 at 08:35
No not yet, although sometimes we call him the ‘Krullevaar’ after a Dutch children’s book character from the book ‘Pluk van de Petteflat’: http://www.wieringernieuws.nl/gfx/nieuws/201104/110525_Krullevaar.jpg Any suggestions are welcome though ;)
Katherine
May 22, 2013 at 14:17
That is so cool!
Magical Day Dream
May 24, 2013 at 08:35
Thanks :)
Erica
May 23, 2013 at 01:42
This ostrich is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time!
And, I agree with you on the creative process. Usually somewhere in the middle you have that ‘what was I thinking’ stage. Luckily, it’s usually short lived and sandwiched in between the fun ‘I can’t wait to get started’ and ‘Whooohooo! I’m done and it’s awesome’ stages. ;)
Magical Day Dream
May 24, 2013 at 08:36
Haha love your description of the stages. But yes, very true
floating thru fields
May 23, 2013 at 02:28
I love it’s facial expression and your use of color so adorable and quirky :)
He looks like he’s going to take off running!
Yes, I usually go through stages it’s fun until I get frustrated and then I have to take a break and come back to it. But running into problems helps with problem solving, so happy accidents abound that you can learn from.
Magical Day Dream
May 24, 2013 at 08:38
Haha I love that you call it ‘happy accidents’; 2 days ago I did a ‘Bob Ross night’ with the Big Bug Collection (we sucked but it was fun :p) and he also keeps calling everything ‘happy little accidents’
TabbyOnTour
May 23, 2013 at 05:37
It’s beautiful!! You guys are crazy talented.
Magical Day Dream
May 24, 2013 at 08:39
Thank you :) If we make anything else I will definitely show it here :)
marietta
May 23, 2013 at 21:59
awesome thing it is!!!
Magical Day Dream
May 24, 2013 at 08:39
Haha thanks!
bekswhoknits
May 23, 2013 at 23:57
you always find the coolest people and make the most awesome things.
The ostrich reminds me a bit of Mook who was my Uncle’s ‘pet’ emu.
Magical Day Dream
May 24, 2013 at 08:42
I had to look up the difference between an ostrich and an emu. That is so awesome though! I once went to an ostrich farm in South Africa (I lived in Africa for 4 years); I was still a kid so quite small and I actually rode one..haha
Megan Butcher
May 26, 2013 at 02:21
This is so awesome!! What a happy thing :) You totally articulated my same feelings about fun & frustration. Life is weird! lol
<3 Megan
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