Create Windowzoo.com Birds!

Create your own Birds for the community street art project windowzoo and become an artist yourself!

Step 1: What You'll Need

Bird
Adhesive black plastic foil
Adhesive transparent plastic foil
Cutter
Cutting mat
Scotch

You can draw the Bird or you can print a picture you have or found.
You can use any adhesive foil - the color does not matter - I most of the time use black for nice contrast. If you can find transparent foil that is not too adhesive, take it. We use it as a carrier film for the finished bird and it helps if it does not stick too much.

Step 2: Prepare Black Foil

Cut black foil so it covers the bird.

Step 3: Tape Foil to Mat, Add Bird on Top

Tape the black foil to the mat.
Crop the Bird to what you need and put it on top.
Tape the Bird to the mat too.

Tape it on every edge at least. When cutting out the Bird you will turn the mat a couple of times and the better it is fixed, the easier the cutting will be.

Step 4: Cut the Bird!

Using the cutter follow the edge of the Bird and cut it out. Don't try to follow the edge of the Bird too precisely, but try to make natural edges. Sometimes it is easier to turn the mat in one or another angle to cut. Try to make sure you join cutting lines in corners. You can also correct this later, but think of it now...
Also make sure you don't forget to cut any edge that makes out the Bird!

Step 5: Remove Bird and Correct Errors

Remove the Bird so only the black plastic foil remains taped to the mat. Take a look at the foil. Have you made all the edges? Do the corners join? you can correct mistakes with the cutter.

Step 6: Skin the Bird

Remove all the black foil around the Bird. Stick it somewhere on the table edge, we'll use it later. Find a way not to skin the portions that have the scotch that keeps the Bird down.

Step 7: Wrap the Bird.

For Birds that have complicated shapes it is best to put them on a carrier film. The carrier film helps to stick them on the target surface later. We use the transparent plastic foil as carrier film. Cut a matching piece of transparent foil and stick it onto the Bird. Rub it on with a credit card like thing. Remove the scotch that taped down the black film and cut out the entire Bird.

Step 8: Reinforce the Back of the Bird

While cutting the Bird out you have cut through the black foil but also through the paper behind it. That is now visible and makes it difficult to remove the entire paper in one piece when sticking the Bird on a surface. Reinforce it with the plastic you have put aside.

Step 9: Free the Bird!

Now you're finished - all that remains is fun:

Find a spot where you wanna set the Bird free, do it (now you see how the carrier film can be handy), take a pic of it and put it in our Flickr pool! You're an artist now.

There are many other ways we use to make Birds including lots of computer work and robots to cut them out (the big ones) but this is the basic process. Every bird you see on windowzoo was born like that. Sometimes from a drawing, sometimes from a picture taken, sometimes from a picture found on the net...

Sometimes you will also have to go back to where you set the Bird free and take another picture - dayshot/nightshot/actionshot...

trips

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can't fake freedom
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