PB knock-off angel wings

What follows is my first ever tutorial. It is very image intensive and possibly difficult to decipher. I apologize in advance. Happy DIYing!!

Tutorial after the jump!

I totally love this oversized carved angel wing from Pottery Barn. It is gorgeous. Very bold and striking and stylized. I was discouraged to see that they were out of stock, though. Not to mention the $675 price tag (add another $70 each for shipping, since they're only available online). So I looked for something similar on the old interwebs that I could make myself. Behold, I was in luck: I found this PB inspired knock off here, but there was no tutorial. I actually liked this knock-off better than the PB version, so I decided to knock-off the knock-off. This is my finished product: I was working without a map, since there were no size specs, nor any materials listed. I initially decided to make mine from particle board using a jig saw. Then I considered how heavy they would be, and decided to start with something lighter weight, especially since I wanted them each to be about 5 feet tall. Fortunately, we'd just moved into our house a couple months ago and had a garage full of giant, heavy duty cardboard boxes.

That's right. I made these from cardboard and paper mache. Here's the tutorial:

First, I freehanded a wing shape on a refrigerator box using a Sharpie. I'm not an artist, so I scoured Google Images for a wing shape I liked and tried to replicate it. I refined it until I liked the shape and then cut it out using a box cutter. I flipped it over and traced it into another side of the refrigerator box and cut out the other wing.

I then drew a rough image of the feather pattern with my Sharpie so I would know how the feathers should look as I taped them on. I didn't really use the pattern so much after I got a few layers of feathers on, but I did refer to it a bit from time to time.

Next, I needed some cardboard feathers. I cut some long feathers for the bottom of the wings and small feathers for the upper part. Once again, I used my trusty marker to make a feather template, cut it out and traced it. About a hundred and fifty times. Then I cut all those out to make enough feathers for both wings. I've got a picture here so you can get an idea of how big the small feathers are.

I used scissors to cut them all out, as an Xacto knife goes dull after only a few cuts. Cutting out the feathers is the most time consuming part of this endeavor. Settle in; you'll be here for a while.Now, I began at the bottom taping on the longer cardboard feathers, but I didn't get pictures of that, so you'll have to bear with me. This is my first tutorial, after all. Here's what they look like with the long feathers taped on:I began on the outside edge of the wing and layered them inward so that the inside edge of the wings would be thickest. Then I began taping on the shorter feathers. Pay close attention to the pattern of your feathers and the layering. They should be relatively uniform, beginning from the bottom on up, outside to inside. This process is tedious, but it really doesn't take all that long. Once they're all feathered, your wings will look like this:

You can begin to see the dimension and depth. Now for the gross part. Paper mache.

I've never used paper mache before, so I looked up a recipe for the paste online. As far as I could tell, there are about a million recipes for paper mache paste and they're all good. Mine was five parts water to one part flour. Mix one cup flour with one cup water until smooth. Boil four cups water, add flour and water mixture and boil for two or three minutes, whisking constantly. This was more than enough for my project.

I ripped a couple days' worth of newspaper into strips, layed some plastic down and got down to business.

One wing done. This angle makes it look smaller than it really is. Be certain that you really press your paper mache strips into all your nooks and crannies and smooth it all down as best you can. You definitely don't want to lose any of your dimension.

These pictures don't really show it, but there's almost a fish scale look to the wings at this point. I let mine dry for about a day and a half. I had to use a space heater eventually because my cold, damp garage was not letting the paste dry quickly enough for my impatient taste.

Eventually they did dry though, and then I began the painting. Of course you'll paint your wings however you want using whatever techniques you prefer. I considered doing a gold tone like the PB original and the knock-off, but I wanted my wings to be more seasonally neutral, so I could leave them up year-round if I want. So I decided to go for a faux-wood finish.

I used a can of Krylon indoor/outdoor spray paint in Saddle Tan and let dry for an hour or so. Then I glazed that over using Minwax water based Wood-Sheen Rubbing Stain and Finish in Colonial Pine. I used a sponge brush for this part, and I was sure to get a lot of the glaze in the cracks and crevices to really bring out the detail. After they dried, they looked like this:

The white areas on the left corner of the wing above are just from the glare of my flash.

They really look like a dark, highly polished carved wood. A close-up of the bottom of the left wing: I don't know why my beige walls look pink in these pictures, but you get the idea of the wings anyway. My wings are 63" by 25". I've got them hung over the piano now, which helps to bring down the vaulted ceilings and make the room a little cozier.

Altogether, I spent $1.27 on a roll of masking tape, $2.80 on the Krylon, and $6.75 on the Minwax glaze. The cardboard I had on hand. So for about $10 and about 10 hours of labor, I have some beautiful angel wings! I am very happy with the way they turned out.

I hope this tutorial is instructive and easy to follow, but if you have any questions, please ask. I'll be happy to clarify!

Cheers!