Easy Recycled and Repurposed Junk Owls

By Joan
March 12, 2025
1 Comment

Recycled and Repurposed Junk Owls

A couple of weeks ago my son brought me over a tin can full of junk, several old wood windows and this old, but still very sharp saw blade.

What can you do with a saw blade? If you have a bunch of junk sitting around like I do he could become a cute upcycled owl.

Do you like his fork toes? I didn’t end up using those but you could bend the tines to make them more claw like.

Out came all my bits and pieces. I do have tons of junk. Every time I pull a knob or handle or thingamajig off a piece I’m working on it gets tossed into a crate for future use, cause ya really never know when it may come in handy.

This is crate #1 of my smaller pieces.

This is a dumped crate #2. I have bigger pieces stashed in other bins. I may have a problem.

I liked the idea of creating owls and once I dumped out my 2 bins of junk I decided why do just one owl when I can create 4? Gather the pieces that will create a good base for your owl.

Gather your eyes. When it comes to owls, besides the body, owls are known for their beautiful eyes. You just need round things in pairs.

Beaks… otherwise known as rusty things that have a wider end and a narrower end.

Starting with the eyes, start building your owl. Don’t attach anything just yet, you’ll want to make a lot of adjustments.

Add the beak and his talon toes.

Accessorize.

Keep building and mixing and matching your owls until you’re happy with the results. The hoe still needs work. Probably less shiny, more rust. That’s sort of my motto for everything I do. 😀

I used E6000 glue to attach all my pieces.

If you have a welder in the family that would probably also come in super handy. As it turns out, my brother in law is a welder and metal worker but he lives just a bit too far for me to use him to weld owls together.

The E6000 glue will have to do instead. Glue and clamp all your pieces letting each piece dry completely before moving on to the next.

I thought I had finished fiddling with my owls when I came upon these metal pieces stored in my garage. They used to be attached to a string of outdoor lights but every time it got windy a few of the pieces would fall off. I stuck them back on for years but I’m done with that and now they’re just sitting in the garage waiting for me to either toss them or use them.

If I cut the cone part off of the piece with a metal grinder and hammer it flat, it turns into a nice piece of metal. I can put 2 of these behind the larger eyes.

I did reconfigure my hoe but this guy remains the least favorite of all my owl buddies. It could be because his beak is too low? I may end up reconfiguring this guy one more time. His eyes are oversized rusty washers, his beak is a turnbuckle, and his toes are old square cut nails. The eyebrows are miscellaneous found junk.

This owls body is just a piece of rusty cut metal. The eyes of this guy started with an old cork float . The cork float was cut in half partly because the eyes would have been too thick and partly because I only needed one cork float to make 2 eyes. On top of the cork float are 2 number 6 house numbers left over from my wedding table numbers followed by 2 rusty washers. His beak is an old hose nozzle.

The body of this owl, and the one that started this all, is an old saw blade gifted to me by my number 3 son. His eyes are old 1 1/2 lb weights found in the sporting goods section of my local Goodwill. His beak is an old clipper and the middle of his eyes are brass candle cups you can find at craft stores. Don’t know what his eyebrows are, just some junk I found in the woods with a cool shape.

And last but not least is this owl made from an old rusted shovel head. His beak is an old door plate. His eyes start out with those rusty outdoor lightbulb covers followed by 2 more of the Goodwill weights. What could pass as spectacles is actually a metal piece I cut off from some metal thing that I thought was too ornately decorated. All those metal cutoff bits and bobs get thrown into my junk bins cause you never know when you’ll find the perfect spot for them.

Don’t throw away your junk, you never know what you can create. For more junky inspiration put junk angels into the search bar at the top of the post and you’ll find more uses for all that “junk”.

Until next time, stay inspired.