How to Make Junk Art Owls (Easy Tutorial)

Make your own garden junk sculptures including owls, cats, and robots, using cheese graters and other repurposed items.

If you love a good rusty patina, also see these rusty garden art ideas.

Garden art owl made from kitchen supplies.

Easy Way to Make Garden Junk Art

Garden art owl made from upcycled kitchen and hardware items.

Time to empty your kitchen junk drawer, all those what-nots in your workshop, and gather all those metal gizmos and gadgets you never use.

Anything that can withstand the weather is fair game.

Combined with the right, long-lasting outdoor adhesive (see below), you can create all sorts of fun garden junk decor.

1Gather Supplies

Supplies for making junk art creatures — Old kitchen junk makes great recycled art

I look for anything metal and fairly lightweight, so it’s easy to glue and will endure the weather.

Here’s some suggestions:

Knives, forks, spoons
Strainers
Fuses
Canning jar lids
Springs
Metal beaters
Utensils
Whisks
Door handles and knobs

Nuts, bolts
Candlesticks
Jello molds
Metal filters
Saw blades
Empty food cans
Can & bottle openers
Gears
Measuring spoons

Making earth wise owls from corrugated cardboard.

2Get the Right Glue

I use GE II silicone sealant (outdoor, clear-drying) for all my garden art. It forms a permanent bond that does not give up. You can buy it in a small tube or for a caulking dispenser.

If you want to know more about this product, I have answered frequently-asked questions about silicone sealant as a glue here.

3Play With Ideas

Diagram of garden junk owl parts. — Diagram showing parts used for garden art owl

Put your supplies out on a table and start playing with ideas.

The best tip for a cute creature is to have obvious eyes. Once you’ve got the eyes, the rest is easy.

Cheese grater funny bird art — Cheese grater and springs—perfect!

If you want to make a specific creature, google junk art + name and view the images tab to get inspiration.

Garden art created from old kitchen items.

Garden junk colander creature — Funny critter

I’m really fond of goofy robot-like creatures and owls.

Cheese grater owl — There are countless options

Here I used a cheese grater as the body of the owl. I then switched to using a metal filter—the type used in range hoods.

TIP: Think about how you’ll want to display your art. If it doesn’t have an obvious way to hang it up, you’ll want to add something to your design to accommodate this.

Garden art made from recycled household stuff including a chandelier.

4Glue Pieces Together

Assembling garden art owl — Use clamps to hold pieces in place while the glue is drying

Some pieces like the eyes of this owl are worked in layers, from back to front (above).

The eyes are made from two different sizes of canning jar lids and old fuses plus springs for eyebrows.

Use clamps to hold things in place while the adhesive is drying.

5Display in Garden

Garden junk owl hanging on fence. — Don’t forget to provide a branch to perch on

Make More

If one looks cute in the garden, a whole bunch look even better. Challenge yourself to make a whole flock—or gang—and give all that old junk a nice, long second life in the garden.