How to Make a Pipe Cleaner Ostrich – Easy Step by Step Instructions With Pictures

These instructions will show you how to easily make a pipe cleaner ostrich step by step. This pipe cleaner animal is not very difficult, but has a few more steps than many other animals its size because it has some unique body features. But don’t worry, each step is simple and has pictures to show you how it’s done. This project will take 2 to 3 hours and I would categorize it as Easy to Intermediate level.

Start creating the body by making a circle about 2 inches in diameter and flattening it into an oval shape. The right side will be the front and the left the back of the animal.
Add an additional pipe all the way around to make it 3 dimensional.
Add additional connectors around the small circumference to add more substance and to increase the structural integrity.
Next we will start the legs. Take 2 pink pipe cleaners and fold them both in half.
Hold the two folded pipe cleaners together and wrap another pipe around them near the rounded ends, continuing to spiral for the length of the legs. There should be extra pipe left at the end in order to connect to the body.
Bend the rounded 90 degrees and spread them apart to shape the feet/toes.
Attach the legs to the bottom of the body near the front end. the right leg will be pointing a bit backward for a more natural look. Make as many connections as possible to make them sturdy.
The second leg will point only slightly backward. Bend both of the legs at the halfway point to provide a knee joint (the opposite way of the human knee).
The neck and head will be started with a single pipe cleaner. Bend a pink pipe cleaner in half and bend the end to make a V shape.
Keep the end pointed, but bow the sides out slightly. The point will be the tip of the beak and the other side is the back of the head.
Near the head spiral a pipe cleaner around all the way to what will be the base of the neck. Bend the neck in an S shape.
Connect a pipe cleaner to the tip of the beak and shape it up and then back down to make the top of the head.
Fill in the head with pink pipe cleaner until there are no more holes. Start at the top of the head and spiral your way down to fill it in.
Fold the tip of a black pipe cleaner in half and push it through the head to give it an eye. Cut the other end slightly away from the head and bend it back to give the second eye.
Attach the neck tot he body at the front of the body, slightly above the middle, similarly to how the legs were connected.
Start filling in the body by starting at the front, going over the top, and then all the way back around to the starting point. Make two lines like this all the way around the body.
Around the base of the legs make a figure 8 pattern and connect the remaining length of pipe to the body.
Fill in the rest of the body as desired. I made lines up and down in the front and back and side to side on the sides.
Make some tail feathers by creating a small W shape and attaching it to the back of the body.
Spiral a brown pipe cleaner around a very small portion at the base of the neck.

That’s it! You now have a new pipe cleaner animal, hopefully which can stand on its own. You may need to make some minor adjustments to the shape and orientation fo the neck and feet, so do so as necessary.