Archive for the ‘Papier Mache Art’ category

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Reader Needs Help With Pinata

January 12th, 2010

I just received an urgent request for help with a pinata project on the Paper Mache Recipe page, and I don’t have the answer. I’ve never made a pinata,and I’m hoping you can help. Please read the comment below and offer your suggestions:

Hello there!

First, I must say how truly gifted you are. These sculptures are AMAZING! I am not doing anything that intricate. I have made 3 large dinosaur egg pinatas for my daughters 7th birthday party. There will be about 39 kids in attendance. I made this by covering plastic trash bags (filled with more plastic bags) with paper mache (using the flour/water/salt/cinnamon recipe). I have done 2 layers of paper mache and it’s SLOWLY drying. I plan to spray paint them, then go back and add details with a paint brush – like adding a crack and a claw sticking out, etc. My goal is to give each kid a good whack at the pinata – so each pinata should be able to withhold about 13 whacks before cracking open. What can I do to strengthen them more? I have run out of time to do a 3rd coat as it seems to take longer and longer to dry. Thank you for any insight you can provide to me – It’s much appreciated!
Suzanne

(The dino egg idea is really clever, don’t you think?)

Thanks in advance for your help. I know Suzanne will appreciate it.

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Papier Mache Dogs You Have to See

October 15th, 2009
Papier Mache Dog

Papier Mache Dog

This is a real fast post. A reader just recommended a site called PapierDog.com. It’s filled with colorful, whimsical papier mache dogs of all colors, stripes and spots by Marci Forbes. I’m so thrilled with the work that I had to make sure you all see Marci’s site.

Marci does have a few cats on her site, too, but I would definitely say she’s a dog person. She even has photos of a complete herd of real dogs on her “about” page, so you know she loves these critters.

Thanks, Karla, for sharing a great site with us.

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Paper Mache Halloween Pumpkins and a Centaur –

October 10th, 2009

Yesterday I received an email from a reader that I just had to share with you. When you see the photos of Laurie Baker’s incredible paper mache centaur and Halloween pumpkins below, you’ll know why. I’m very happy that Lauri gave me permission to share her email with you. She has some tips for you, in addition to her photos of recent projects.

Something that amazes me is that she started  sculpting with paper mache as a way to help her stop smoking – and it worked!

And now, here’s Laurie’s email:

Hi there, gosh, I just saw the YouTube video of the paper mache elephant, that was spectacular!!!! I love how you made the pre-paper pattern!!

I subscribed to your website here, I just started doing paper mache a few months ago when I wanted to quit smoking after 33yrs, so far I’ve been a paper maching fool lol!!!

Saw some ideas about shop paper towels and thought I’d share my idea of baby wipes. I buy generic, they’re like 2.00 for 88 or so, you can use them wet if you don’t want to tear them or pull them out of the container, let air dry then they tear to have smaller pieces. These are fantastic in my opinion, they dry fast and hard and you don’t need as many layers of paper then. Sometimes I use a layer of brown grocery bags either before or on top of the baby wipes, they cover little tiny edges that are sticking up sometimes when the paper dries. Well just an idea I wanted to share with you….

Here’s a few pics…a life size centaur that I painted with stone like spray paint so it looks just like a stone statue and pumpkins that we put lights in. The baby wipes are GREAT for hair, beards, tails, and also for the gnarly wood-looking pumpkin stems. I do use glue in my flour water mixture tho….not sure if it would work the same for just flour and water.

Lauries Life-Sized Paper Mache Centaur

Laurie's Life-Sized Paper Mache Centaur

I have 9 pumpkins now ( the biggest is aprox 30″ not including the stem )  4 zombies, a giant frog, a gnome, life size werewolf/man, creepy huge arms with scary hands, and a life sized man I haven’t decided what to do with him yet.

Lauries Paper Mache Pumpkins

Laurie's Paper Mache Pumpkins

Trying the lights in the pumpkins now using twinkle Christmas lights makes them appear to be flickering candle..here’s 4 lit:

Lighted Paper Mache Pumpkins

Lighted Paper Mache Pumpkins

And yes :-) :-) I haven’t smoked at all for 5 almost 6 months wahoooo :-) Laurie Baker

Of course, I have no idea how Laurie made the centaur or the pumpkins, but I hope she’ll check in once in a while so she can answer your questions. And thanks, Laurie – I’m so glad you shared your work with us!

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Posted in Cheap Art, Papier Mache Art

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Where Papier Mache Sculptors are Important

October 2nd, 2009

This post is a compilation of news and interesting papier mache artwork that I found while surfing this morning.

My online journey began wit this  news item: Malta is celebrating Carlo Darmanin, Malta’s most important papier-mache statue maker, with an exhibition of his work. Naturally, my reaction to this news was “What? Papier mache sculptors are important in Malta? I want to go there!”

The great sculptor died 100 years ago, but they still think papier mache is important. Lectures included in the celebration will include::

Renzo Gauci, a Maltese papier-mache statue maker who will be speaking about the art of papier-mache, and another by Victor Caruana, who has carried out in-depth research about papier-mache and artists who use this technique.

Our Lady of Lourdes by Carlo Darmanin

Our Lady of Lourdes by Carlo Darmanin

Darmanin created statues for use in churches and sanctuaries. I’m guessing, but it looks like the works were made with the traditional “chewed” paper, or papier mache pulp. If I happened to be in Malta I’d make sure to attend that lecture so I could know for sure.

And in case you’re wondering, Malta is in the Mediterranean, due south of Sicily – and it looks like art of all kinds are important there.

Ilooked for photos of contemporary papier mache in Malta to see what they’ve been up to lately, but I was unsuccessful. However, I ran across these small statues of Keith Richards and Woody Allen (in Barcelona – Google isn’t perfect). It’s interesting to see papier mache used to create human figures in completely different styles – both sacred and profane. The profane ones are below (I’m not sure I could live with this likeness of Keith, but Woody is kind of cute:

Keith Richards and Woody Allen in Barcelona

Keith Richards and Woody Allen in Barcelona

You can also find a photo of a bust of John Lennon, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), Marlon Brando and a few other figures, all in paper mache, on the Barcelona Photoblog. The blogger does not give the name of the store where these works are found, or the artist’s name. If you happen to know, please tell us.

Also be sure to check out the giant paper mache troll statue, made by Seattle artist Kim Graham. It looks like a knarly tree with a personality. According to the artist, this statue was made to look great when you get your photo taken in front of it. Her site doesn’t say how the sculpture was made or if it’s waterproof. Again, tell us if you know.

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Seattle’s Mystery Sculptor

August 26th, 2009

An anonymous artist left a rather elaborate multi-piece paper mache sculpture at Gas Works Park in Seattle last night.

Mystery Sculptures at Gas Works Park

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The newspaper sent me an email just a few minutes ago to see if I knew who the artist was – which I think is rather flattering. Unfortunately, I don’t know who created this piece, which:

…consists of several pieces: a full-size gold-plated man standing on the waterfront surrounded by what appear to be shells, some with the heads of people emerging from them.”Anew is gifted to the citizens of Seattle in the spirit of awakening,” the artist wrote in a plaque attached to the sculpture. “Each of us has shells to break through, parameters to look past and wills to exercise. Arise and stand and then start moving.”

As a P.S., the artist wrote, “If still here I will remove once the rains return.”

(See larger images of the work here, and read the full Seattle Times article here).

Unfortunately, you can’t give art to the people of Seattle without a permit, which our anonymous artist failed to do. Therefore, the work will be removed from the park on Thursday. So if you’re in the area and you want to see the work before it disappears, you’d better head down to Gas Works Park now.

I can’t imagine spending so much time to create a sculpture, or group of sculptures, and then just give them away without trying to get any credit for it. My ego is way too big for me to ever be that selfless. But it is a way to (very temporarily) get your work in front of the public without having to get permission from the dreaded “committee.”

I’m trying to figure out how the artist made the central gold figure. It looks like it may have been molded around a real person. Hmmm.

Now, I have a legal/philosophical question to put to you. If you followed that link to the slide show, you saw that the newspaper will sell you a print of their photo of the sculptures. I became aware of certain copyright issues having to do with photos of artwork when I lived in Portland. While I was there, the creator of Portlandia got himself in the news by insisting that no photographs or other images of his sculpture could be sold, even though the sculpture itself belonged to the city, because he owned the copyright of the original work. Which seems fair, although it did make a few people unhappy who wanted to put the image on T-shirts or whatever.

Now for my question. I realize that a group of sculptures that shows up mysteriously in a popular public park is news, and of course the work should be shown in the paper. But should the paper be allowed to sell those photos, since they cannot have obtained the copyright from the sculptor? In other words, should the newspaper be able to profit directly from an image of a piece of artwork  they had no hand in creating?  Or did the artist give up all right to his work the minute he placed it in the park? Thoughts?

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My Next Paper Mache Project – What Should It Be?

August 23rd, 2009

I’m waiting for the second-to-last layer of paper mache to dry on my big baby elephant so I can attach the ears and add the final “skin” of paper towels. (Paper towels looked very skin-like on my other hairless animal, the flying pig.) While I wait I’m trying to decide what I should work on next, and I’m hoping you, my readers, will offer your opinions.

There are two projects I’m considering right now – one of them would take a long time to finish, while the other one could be done in a day or two. And I’m sure there are many projects I haven’t thought of yet, so feel free to chime in, even if your idea has nothing to do with the two things listed below. After all, that’s how we ended up with several of the more popular paper mache tutorials on this blog.

Idea #1: A paper mache didgeridoo. Several months ago I got it into my head that I needed a didgeridoo. In fact,  I actually made one. My original method was very time-consuming and somewhat difficult, but the shape was very organic and interesting. However, the sound was horrible and blowing on it made me dizzy.

I then did what I should have done before starting the project, and found out how to make a didgeridoo that actually sounds the way it’s supposed to. I don’t promise it will sound like this, but at least it shouldn’t sound like a farting elephant, like my first try.

So, does anyone out there have a burning need for a hand-made, hand-decorated didgeridoo of their very own? If not, I won’t bother, but if anyone thinks it would be fun, let me know. As I discovered a bit too late to save my first attempt, making one that actually works is easy, and only costs a few dollars.

Idea 2: This is the long-term project. I’ve been thinking about creating a book about weird and wonderful animals. Not made-up animals, like dragons, but real ones, like echidnas and other critters that astound us by their refusal to follow  the “rules”of proper animal design.

The book would be illustrated by photos of paper mache sculptures, and include interesting facts and stories about the animals. It would not be a book to show people how to make the sculptures, although it might be fun to add links to this site if anyone thinks they would like to make their own.

The purpose of the book, for me, would be to give me an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful variety of life forms that nature has blessed us with, and I hope that readers would learn a thing or two, as well.

Do you have a favorite weird animal that you think I should include in the book? If so, let me know in your comments below. Who knows – your favorite creature could end up in the book.

OK – now back to my elephant.

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Posted in Papier Mache Art

Papier Mache Artist’s Sites to Visit

July 7th, 2009

Yesterday, while I was waiting for the final coat of paper and paste to dry on my pair of jackrabbits, I decided to do a bit of surfing to find a few paper mache artists’ sites to share with you.

My first stop was The Papier Mache Resource, one of my favorite sites. Their forum members have helped me out several times, and I feel I should visit much more often.

While I was there I checked out their links page. I was disappointed to find that so many of the sites they link to are no longer online. (If you’re about to give up on your own site, be sure to read my post about how to improve website traffic).

Below are a few of my favorite paper mache sculpture websites.

Figure Sculptures:

Tiffany Ownbey. Scroll down the page to see her imaginative figure sculptures, which are deceptively simple. She uses many found objects in her work, and she shows her work at many galleries nationwide.

Orhan Taylan. Papier mache figure sculptures in the classical style.

Animal Sculptures:

Karen Cronor. I do appreciate realistic animal sculptures, and these are really wonderful. Love the coyotes.

Lorraine Berkshire-Roe’s Papier Mache Pets.  Her critters have such interesting characters – you just know they’d be fun to live with.

La Machouille. Even if you can’t read the French (I admit I can’t), the paintings and papier mache sculptures on this site are definitely worth a visit. There’s a very interesting contrast between the artist’s highly realistic paintings of animals, and the whimsical, loosely interpreted sculptures of the same subjects. Is it the medium imposing itself on the artist, or the other way around?

Ellen Carlier’s Papier Mache Art. Cows, a kangaroo – lovely, whimsical critters.

Nancy Winn. Found objects create amazing fur and textures on these imaginative paper mache animal sculptures.

Hitomi Oikawa. I’m particularly fond of her pig – click around until you find it. I discovered a bit of history on this site – according to the artist, paper mache was first used in China to make warriors’ helmets. The craft was later brought to England for use in making furniture. Did you know that?

That’s all for today. My jackrabbits are now ready for their ears…

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