Jonni’s Sculptures and Masks

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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Dodo Bird – Mixed Media Sculpture

I really had fun making this dodo. The body started out like most of my animal sculptures, with a cardboard pattern and crumpled paper and masking tape. I intended to take a photo of the pattern, but I was having so much fun putting him together that I forgot to get out the camera. (Does [...]

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Restore Art Auction Lion Mask

This display mask is the first project I managed to finish in my new house in Volga, South Dakota. I’ll take it down to the Brookings Restore tomorrow, right after the varnish is dry and the brass washer has been hot-glued to the back to reinforce the hole I made to hang the mask. It [...]

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Barbecued Clay – It Actually Works (Sort Of)

I did do one experiment this month while I taking a break from putting books in boxes. I wanted to find out if you can really fire clay in a barbecue grill. And yes, it looks like you really can. I started out turning some of my Wonder White low-fire clay from Georgies into paper [...]

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Harry’s Mask Is Done

Yes, I finally finished the paper mache mask of Nancy’s beautiful greyhound, Harry. As you may recall, this is the mini-mask I volunteered to make for a fundraising event for a sighthound rescue group. I’m embarrassed to see that I started this little paper mache mask on May 24 – almost two months ago! [...]

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Chimpanzee Sculpture is Done!

The chimpanzee sculpture that I started three or four weeks ago is finally done! I really like this guy. As soon as I finish painting my kitchen I’ll make a stand for him. This is a mixed media sculpture. The face was cast in Aqua-Resin, and the body was formed with paper mache over [...]

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Harry Progresses – Slowly

This week I have proven conclusively that you really can have too many projects going at once. However, I’ve still made time to work on Harry’s mask, and I’m starting to like the way it’s coming out. Harry looks like a fellow with a great sense of humor, (but we haven’t met, so I [...]

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Harry the Greyhound’s Mask Begins

Last month I participated in a fundraising event for sighthounds, and Nancy won the auction for a custom-made paper mache mini-mask of Harry, her beautiful greyhound. She recently sent a fabulous set of photos, from every angle – they’re exactly what I needed for this portrait mask. I started this project yesterday by creating [...]

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Practice Mutt, and Pinterest for artists

I made a short video to show you a little portrait mask I made of a puppy. This happy guy invited himself to my house last weekend. (I saw him later, tied up in front of a house a few blocks away — so I’m happy to say that his owner quickly found him [...]

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Begging Dachshund – Project #5 in New Paper Mache Book

This video is part of a series showing the projects in my new book Make Animal Sculptures With Paper Mache Clay. (The video was made before the book came out – it is now available on Amazon.com) In this video I introduce you to the fifth project in my upcoming paper mache book. The begging [...]

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Vintage Chicken – Project #1 in New Paper Mache Book

This video is part of a series showing the projects in my new book Make Animal Sculptures With Paper Mache Clay. (The video was made before the book came out – it is now available on Amazon.com) You haven’t heard much from me in the last three months, because I’ve been working so hard on [...]

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Two New Lion Cubs

My last two life-sized lion cubs are finished. This one is sleeping with her head on one paw. Her brother, below, is stalking one of the other lion cubs from the same litter, which I showed you on a previous post. This is the last of the big cats, at least for a while. They [...]

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Coming Soon – Panda Tutorial. Plus, Jackrabbits now in Progress

I recently received a request for instructions showing how to make a paper mache panda. I love the idea, and I’ve already picked out the spot where I’ll be putting my bear when he’s finished. I haven’t started the panda yet, but there should be some progress in my studio this afternoon. (Note – the [...]

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Paper Mache Flying Pig

This paper mache flying pig was a fun project. I won’t give detailed instructions, since it was made primarily the same way that the paper mache bunny was made. You can see the basic shape of the pig below. This is after the second layer of paper mache has been added, but before the details [...]

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Dionysus – A Faux Marble Bust in a Paper Mache Frame

A faux marble bust of the Greek God Dionysus is surrounded by a paper mache frame. The frame was designed to look like an open niche in a garden wall. I started this wall sculpture of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine (among other things) several months ago. It sat on my shelf, almost finished, [...]

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