Ultimate Paper Mache

Baby Animal Doll Book is Done! And a Paper Mache Challenge…

Well, my book has been officially available on amazon.com for almost a week now, but there is still a slight snag. There’s a problem with the “search inside the book” function, but the tech guys are working on it. It should be fixed either today or tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed for me!). You can [...]

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Paper Mache Wall Art – a Guest Tutorial

Today we have a guest post from Gennifer, an educator and anthroposophy student living in New Zealand. (And yes, I had to look up the word “anthroposophy,” too – it looks like a really interesting subject to study!) Gennifer creates three dimensional paintings using traditional paper mache. This is something that many readers have expressed [...]

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Opinions Needed – I Can’t Make Up My Mind . . .

My doll book is so close to being done — all that’s needed now is a cover design. Only one doll (maybe three, if I really squish them) can fit on the front cover, and I’m totally paralyzed by the idea of having to pick one. One of the dolls is a portrait of my [...]

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Concrete Lion Head Sculpture is Done

The concrete lion head is finished – at least the concrete part. I’ll probably add some sort of final finish to it after it’s fully cured. The first one had a lot of air bubbles on the surface, so I made a second one with a thinner mix of Quikwall. Next time, I’ll try sculpting [...]

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Concrete Lion Head Sculpture – the Latex Mold

I finished the latex mold today, and I went to the store for the Quikwall concrete mix for the final sculpture. The lion head should be finished in a few days, after the concrete has had time to cure. Someone asked why I didn’t use silicone instead of latex, and there’s two reasons – first, [...]

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Concrete Garden Art – Making a Clay Lion Head Model

I took some time off this weekend to work on a clay model that I can then use to make a concrete lion head for my garden wall. (The wall itself is still on the to-do list). When I asked if people would be interested in watching me make a latex mold that could be [...]

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Rhino is Done, plus Recommended Books for Surface Decorations

The Indian rhino that I made last month, using plaster cloth and my new air dry clay recipe, is now finished. She was coated with Sculpt Nouveau iron coating, sprayed with Tiffany Green and Darkening patinas, and then glazed with warm grey acrylic paint mixed with Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid. I like her a lot, [...]

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New Air Dry Clay Recipe, with Better Measurements

I wanted to standardize the new air-dry clay recipe, so it will come out exactly the same every time. To do that, I measured the ingredients, and took special care to weigh the toilet paper after the water was squeezed out. The toilet paper can be squeezed too dry, and if that happens you end [...]

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How the Raven Armature was Made

Today someone asked me how the raven armature was built, because that part of the project was left out of the previous videos. As you may recall, a few weeks ago I uploaded several videos showing how I added the new home-made air-dry clay to my raven sculpture, and then how I added the iron [...]

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Adding Home-Made Air-Dry Clay to the Indian Rhino

I’ve been working about an hour a day for almost a week now to get the Indian rhino covered with the air-dry clay. Now all that’s left is to finish the other side of the head and give her some toes. Then I decide how I’ll finish her. I know you’ll think I’m nuts, but [...]

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Indian Rhino, Plaster Cloth over Wet Clay Experiment

I took a bit of time off from my book-writing job to begin an adult Indian Rhino. Not a life-sized one, but still pretty big. To make it go faster, I created the basic shapes with wet clay over a cobbled-together armature, and then covered the clay with plaster cloth. The final layer will come [...]

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Adding Sculpt Nouveau Iron Coating to the Raven Sculpture

The raven got its iron coat yesterday, and now it really does look like it was made out of cast iron. I think it turned out rather nice. Let me know what you think. If you’re interested in Jessie’s art class that I mentioned in the video and you’d like to see if there’s any [...]

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Raven Sculpture Made with New Air-Dry Clay Recipe

A few days ago I posted a video and recipe with my new air-dry clay recipe. This video shows you how the new clay looks on an actual sculpture. It was made in my normal way, using a cardboard pattern inside and crumpled paper and masking tape to fill out the form. However, I used [...]

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New Smoother Air-Dry Clay Recipe

I’ve been working hard this week, developing methods for making the baby animal dolls that will appear in my next book. One thing I worked on was making a new recipe for the dolls that could be made smoother than the original paper mache clay. I tried a number of different versions, and all but [...]

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Paper Mache Bunny Ballerina is Bronzed

Bronzed Bunny Ballerina – kind of trips over your tongue, doesn’t it? This final step was the easiest one – just paint on the bronze coating, spritz with the patina stuff, let it dry, and spray clear coat over it. The bunny got done just as my house project did – just a few more [...]

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