Paper Mache Projects

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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Ballerina Bunny Gets Paper Mache

We’re coming down to the finish, finally! I spent at least 5 hours adding paper mache clay and the shop towel mache to the upper portion of the bunny, and now she’s just waiting for her final bronze coat. I may try tinting the bronze in a few places, like the casting of the original [...]

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Ballerina Bunny Now Has Eyes

Well, these eyes sure took a lot longer than I expected. It’s a little like what happened with my “little” remodeling job – just change this one little thing, and then you need to change something else, and that means that you have to fiddle with this other thing… Whew! Three hours later, I have [...]

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Ballerina Bunny Gets a Tutu

I took a break this week from my remodeling project, and got a tutu on the ballerina bunny. It’s sort of embarrassing to have so many people know how long it’s taking me to finish this silly rabbit. Next time, she’ll get some eyeballs, and the rest of her upper torso will be finished and [...]

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Ballerina Bunny Gets a Head… Finally!

She’s still far from done, but the paper mache ballerina bunny is further along than it was in the last post. Right after I made that video, I started pulling the old paneling off the walls of my “new” 100 year old house. Then I pulled down all the broken plaster, creating a gigantic, nasty [...]

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Ballerina Bunny – Part 1

This is the first video in a series. This little ballerina bunny is based on a mixed media sculpture by Degas, but only very loosely. I thought about using a Bugs Bunny-type body, but then I just sort of started adding paper to the wire armature, and this is how she ended up. Still no [...]

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What’s Next?

I move to my new house next Tuesday, so I’ve been boxing up my books and art supplies–again! If you’ve noticed that I’ve been a bit slow answering your comments, that’s my excuse. I have no new projects to report, obviously, and I’m not sure when I’ll get my next one started, but I am [...]

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Holiday Deer

Hello, everyone. I hope you had a great holiday, and that you’re looking forward to the New Year. I haven’t been working on any paper mache this week, but I should get to start some big projects as soon as I move into my new house in the middle of January. In the meantime, I’m [...]

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