Paper Mache Projects

Poseable Hand Armature for Paper Mache Clay

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Share  I’ve been working on a chimp sculpture for the last week or so, with no real progress to show for it. Right now I’m waiting for UPS to deliver some more supplies so I can finish the head. However, I did make a poseable armature for the chimp’s hand this morning, and with some [...]

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Paper Mache Bunny – 3 Experiments in One

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Share  This week I’ve been doing more experiments, while also playing around with modeling clay portraits. The portraits were just for me, because I’m trying to learn how to do it. You can see a few (and also see what our fellow sculptors have been up to this week) on our Daily Sculptors page. All [...]

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Call for Cats, and Daily Sculpture Challenge

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Share  I think it would be fun to have a special post to show off all the paper mache cats that people made following my recent video series. Did you make a cat? If so, I’d love to add it to the gallery on a special post here on my site. If you’d like your [...]

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Thanks for Your Feedback – I Think We Have A Winner!

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Share  Thanks to everyone who commented and left suggestions on my last post. I played around with the paper mache clay recipe a bit more, and I really like the result. It’s now smoother, it isn’t sticky, and it holds incredible detail. It’s also less expensive to make, which is always a plus. The one [...]

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JonniClay v. 2.0 – Tell Me If It’s an Improvement or Not

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Share  I do hope you’ll experiment with these two new slightly-altered paper mache clay recipes if you have access to a few cups of powdered ceramic clay. The clay I used was ordered from Georgies in Portland. It’s their Wonder White clay. I think any ceramic clay without grog would work the same way. (You [...]

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Molds for Paper Mache Sculptures – Is this a Crazy Idea?

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Share  An idea for a new small business has been floating around in my head for a few weeks, and I’d like your input. Feel perfectly free to tell me I’m crazy. Or not. Honestly, I really haven’t decided myself. This would be a way for me to expand my own income while also giving [...]

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Paper Mache Head – Success!

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Share  It worked. The paper mache head did dry, even though the paper mache was applied over a wet clay form. But that wasn’t really the part I was most interested in. I wanted to know if I could cut the paper mache into two pieces to easily remove it from the clay, and then [...]

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Paper Mache Head – Maybe…

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Share  I’m doing an experiment today. I’m covering a damp clay sculpture with paper mache, because I want to ship the paper mache head to my Dad in Washington. The water-based clay is heavy, and it would probably get ruined if I tried to ship it anyway. I’m using the fast-setting paper mache paste and [...]

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Practice Mutt, and Pinterest for artists

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Share  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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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat – Final Lesson

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Share  Well, it took a bit longer than usual, but my paper mache cat is done. I made a video showing how I painted my cat, (shown below). If your paper mache cat is a portrait of a different feline, or if you added less texture,  you’ll want to use different colors and probably smaller [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson 6

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Share  We finally made it to the step where we get to start adding paper mache clay (or paper strips and paste, if that’s what you’ve decided to use.) I’ll keep working on this part of my kitty for the next few days. If you have any questions about this part of the process, please [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson #5 – Toes, Ears and Tail

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Share  This is the very last step before adding paper mache. I feel like this project is taking a lot longer than usual, but that’s mostly because I’m doing too many things at once. One of my big projects is trying to make it easier for people to find their way around this site – [...]

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Paper Mache Clay Video – the Sequel…

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Share  Since we’re getting very close to the day when we can add paper mache to our paper mache cat, I thought this would be a good time to do another video about the paper mache clay recipe. There are some very common questions about the clay, and I hope that this video will answer [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson #4 – Sculpting the Face

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Share  My cat is getting much closer to the day when I can start adding the paper mache. I really did think I could add the ears, toes and tail in this lesson, in addition to filling out the face, but the video would have taken way too long. Besides, it took me a long [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson #3 – Padding the Armature

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Share  Today we start filling out the padding on our paper mache cat. This portion took quite a long time, so I’ll wait and do the head and toes on the next video. As you’ll see in the video, I made a little clay model to make it easier for me to see where all [...]

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