I wanted to do something just a little different today, so I created a how-to video showing the baby Indian elephant coming to life, from beginning to end. This big baby used several of the techniques you’ve probably already seen in other tutorials on this site, but this is definitely the largest project I’ve done to date.
Even though she’s big, and I used a power saw to make the armature, Elsie wasn’t really the most difficult project I’ve done — she’s just the biggest. I’ve now discovered that making big animals sculptures is kind of fun. Where on earth will I put the next one?
Here’s my YouTube video about How to Make a Paper Mache Elephant:
If you want to make your own baby Indian elephant, you can download the patterns here.
Elsie came inside last night, which I thought was prudent after the previous slug incident. I managed to get her gray coat on before I went to bed. When I woke up this morning there was a dead mosquito attached to poor Elsie, with it’s proboscis embedded in her new gray hide. Nature, tooth and claw, I guess—but you’d think a mosquito would have enough sense…
Enjoy.
[edit] - I just received a note from someone who saw this video on YouTube – and used the ideas to make a full-sized adult Indian elephant. That’s right – full sized. That’s one humongous paper mache animal sculpture. You can see it on their paper mache elephant video here.
- My favorite online bookstore.
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Thanks for this! I used it for a New Media project that addresses the issue of elephant poaching. My ‘baby’ is actually the adult elephant for the project, but I used this to also make a smaller baby to go with the mom (to scale the piece).
From you video though I wasn’t clear on what I needed to get to make the eyes – joint compound and what? And is there a recipe for mixing them?
Your site is awesome!
Thanks, Julie. Back when I made the elephant video, I used joint compound mixed with cellulose. Now, however, I would use the paper mache clay recipe, which you can find here.
May I ask – how did you put on the paper towel? I am doing this now, but I’m concerned that the lines of where the towel ends will show up. The wrinkles look great, as does the texture, but how do I hide the lines of the towel while showing the wrinkles and the bumps?
BTW – thanks so much for your site. I am having endless fun making the elephants (I’ve made the large one as the mother and a smaller baby one), and I totally can’t wait to have time to just play around with some of your clay recipes.
Julie, are you tearing the hard cut edges off your towels before you apply them to the sculpture? Torn edges can sort of melt together, but the cut edges won’t do that, and end up showing on the finished pieces.
I’m glad you’re having fun making elephants. Could you post a photo so we can see how they turned out?
No, I didn’t. D’oh! I was having trouble getting the paper to be a size I could work with where I could get off the excess without the paper folding over on itself – paper towel is a challenge to work with.
Can I put on another layer with torn paper to fix this or should I rip off the cut layer? (I find the paper towel sometimes easy to remove – anyway to fix that too?)
Yes, I can post photos when they are done.
Thanks so much for the additional help!
Another layer should fix it. To make sure the first layer is stuck fast to the sculpture, you could brush it with a fairly wet mix of paste, which should soak through the towel and onto the lower surface.
Good luck – I look forward to seeing it when it’s done.
Thanks Jonni! The ripped paper made a WORLD of difference.
I just saw your post on Facebook about your Elephant tutorial and realised I hadn’t yet uploaded the one I made to this tutorial itself so here is the process picture of how it worked out for me.
Hi this is my effort, following your video, I am really pleased with the outcome, I’v not worked with paper mache before, I like it.
Jax, did you try to add a photo of your elephant? If so, it didn’t come through – and we’d love to see it, so please try again.
baby elephant 2
Lovely! Thanks for showing her to us.
Hi Jonni,
I love your all your ideas and designs so much that I decided to start a project of my own. I am expecting my first baby and when I saw your baby elephant project I fell in love. I have started the elephant but I wanted t o give the elephant a bit of a less realistic look and more cartoonish feel to the elephant considering it will be the main decoration in my sweet lil baby boy’s nursery. I will upload pictures for you to see so far following all your tips I am using paper mache paste and joint compound layers to smooth it out. The paper mache clay intimidated me a bit. So far so good. I wanted your advice or opinion on how I should decorate this elephant. I have thought long and hard about this…what do you think about using tissue paper or fabric as my finishing layer? any experience with working with these different materials? should I stick to painting my own design ? I will appreciate any input!! I have worked so hard that i would hate to miss the finishing touch. attached are some pictures I took before starting the layering.
Thanks,
Excited and Expecting Momma.
baby elephant
Hi Cindy,
I think that either tissue paper or fabric would work very well, but I have no personal experience with either of them. I’ll bet if you post your elephant photo and comment over on our Daily Sculptor’s page, you’d get some feedback — there may be someone who regularly watches that page who has tried it.
Your elephant is really great, by the way. It’s going to be perfect for your lucky baby.
he stands about 8″ at the shoulder..loving paper mache!!
here’s my first attempt at an elephant..thanks I luv the paper mache clay!!
[img]http://ultimatepapermache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/05032012394.jpg[/img]
He looks great! Very dynamic pose. How big is he?
I am 12 and i am to working on a saber tooth tiger for my b-day party in july. I figured it will take a wile so I started now. I am useing your idea of how to make large paper mache sculptures and would like any advice you can offer because I have never done this before, but I like the art and would like to end up doing more than one.
[img]http://ultimatepapermache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/untitled.JPG[/img]
Hi Allyson. It looks like you’ve got a great start on your saber toothed tiger. for more ideas, you might want to read through the tutorials I’ve got on this site – there are lots!
I am in ore… very interested in paper mache at the moment. I always thoughts that paper mache was all newspaper, flour and water never thought to use masking tape, chipboard and glue. Thank you for the inspiration xx
[img]http://ultimatepapermache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/0012.JPG[/img]
[img]http://ultimatepapermache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/001.JPG[/img]
I once started an indian elephant but I thought it would take so much of that “dass” paste I think I told you on a prior message that I just ended by putting it aside …
But just wanted to show another type or inner structure made out of the same kind of grid you used to make the trunk, and then reinforced by stripes of cardboard intertwined with the wire structure … You get a few scratch but I think its worth it because you get its shape right away!
I’m not saying by any means that this is better than your aproach, just wanted to share other ways of getting there
Again thanks for your inspiring website
Good idea, Pedro. How big is your elephant?
Well our life size elephant was a huge success. It was a lot of work but it paid off because we took first place in the homecoming parade.
Wow! Fantastic job, Kim. It’s no wonder you took first place.
I am wanting to build an life sized elephant as well. How did you build the inside frame? Did you use the same as Jonni did in her video?
Wow I am so inspired by this! I am a Pre-school teacher in an International School in France. We are starting a theme on ‘Patterns’ and I am going to use Elmer the elephant as my main story character (she’s a patchwork elephant) I am desperate to make a 3D elephant with the children and this looks perfect. Watch this space!
how did you get the pattern for the elephant on the wood for the body? did you draw it!? i want to make one but i dont have anything near big enough to print out the image big enough. i want to make one that will stand about a foot high how did you measure the spacers for the legs to get the right proportions? i thought you may have used the grid spuares and measure the width of the leg and put that width as the same for the spacers? right or wrong? i want to make one for christmas
thanks for the help!!!
Hi April. I did draw the pattern onto the wood, after putting the grid on the wood first. I didn’t print it out on paper first. You can see the process of expanding the pattern using a grid here.
I did use the grid system to figure out how big to make the spacers. You can see the drawing I did using the grid below the pattern here. The spacers take up two squares, minus the width of the wood you use.
And by the way, if your elephant is going to be just a foot high, you can use cardboard instead of wood for the armature.
We are in the process of almost finishing a life size elephant using your tutorial and it is coming together great so far, but I had a few questions. Do you recommend using the flour and water solution for the paper mache? Also when do you put on the paper towels for the skin? This has been some task but I think we are going to pull it off.
Yes, I used the raw flour and water paste. And I put on the paper towels right at the very end, so the bumps would show on the finished piece. The bumps are really the only reason to use the paper towels, in fact.
I sure hope you’ll show us how your elephant turns out.
Great job! This puts anything I’ve made with papier-mâché to shame!
Jonnii!
Hello again =3
I’m in another proyects now with your fabulous tutorials =3
I have a question.
It is possible to use the paper mache clay in this kind of sculptures?
hey!
I am trying to do this elephant, but could you do a supply list?
its hard putting all of it together when you realize you forgot something.
thanks!
Heather, it’s been so long since I made the elephant that I can’t remember exactly what supplies I used. The important things are something strong for the armature (I used particle board but heavy cardboard reinforced with wire would work, too), lots of newspaper (I used roll ends from the local newspaper office, but recycled paper is just as good), and lots of masking tape. The paper mache was also newspaper and paste made out of flour and water. I think I used some joint compound to smooth out dips and bumps, and then covered that with more paper mache. And the skin is made out of paper towels. Acrylic paint (regular wall paint would work, too, if the elephant is really big) and acrylic varnish.
Did I forget anything?
I tried that rebar is too tough to mold with and tie wire is too thin so he’s been put on hold. The second one is near completion but he’s fairly larger and already weighs about 70 pounds and those are the legs alone..
Here is the start of the first one he’s gonna be a big boy, for a scale reference look at the tape roll at the bottom it is about the size of an adults palm which how big it’s gonna be.
Wow – and the top photo is just his head. What a fantastic project – will you be able to get him out the door when it’s done?
Yeah he’ll fit, the only problem I keep coming across is finding a way of connecting the heads to the body.
Could you use rebar and a whole lot of tie wire?
The biggest has an 8 foot head and the longest is 33 feet, they’re considered medium size for dinosaurs I hope one day to do a house sized dinosaur the problem is just where to put it.
My name is Gabe and your art on this site has really inspired me, I’m working on 4 life-sized dinosaur sculptures using your tutorials.
Wow – are you making some of the house-sized dinos, or some of the smaller ones? Whichever it is, I definitely want to see them when they’re done. Progress photos would be cool, too – if you’re willing to share.
Jonni. We are trying to create 3 3 foot globes out of paper mache and balloons. I was wondering if you had any tips to help us on this amazing endeavor. Please email me ASAP. I love your work and thank you for any assistance you can provide.
ah, now both comments appear!
)
Sorry, not used to this, yet…..
It worked out fine – two pictures, two comments.
I think by mortage you mean what we call mortar? A mix of Portland cement and sand? If I got that wrong, please let me know. Do you have a photo of the elephant after it’s all done, or are you still working on her?
of course it’s mortAR! AGAIN I did it wrong…. OO
Anyway, the elephant is done and I sent a pic already. It is still the small one made of mortAR from last summer.
http://www.dropmocks.com/mRA2C
She’s beautiful, Bitta! Thanks for sharing.
I think that link doesn’t work anymore….?
It worked for me just now. If you could edit the photo and make it small enough to fit in this column, I could grab it and put it here so more people would see it. It’s a fantastic sculpture – I wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.
from home it works, but not in the office. hm…
try this one – small enough?
/Britta
It still didn’t quite fit, but I made it a tad bit smaller. What a great photo.
Thank you!!
i was wondering how you made the ears because i didnt see you making that part in the video. also how do you make the tail? and the eyes!!!!
The eyes are painted. The tail is a piece of electrical wire that goes all the way down the spine, and then turns into a tail. It was covered with paper mache. The ears are made from expanded aluminum. 1/4 inch hardware cloth would also work. You need to cut it so there’s a lot extra that will fold against the head. Even better, cut both ears from the same piece and have a tab between them that goes over the head – that would make a nice strong ear. A large-headed nail or two can be pressed in by hand to hold the ears on while the paper mache is added. Always make sure the joint is covered and dry before adding paper mache to the ear itself, or the weight of the paper mache will pull the ear off.
As my elefant is covered with mortage I made the ears from chicken-wire. two layers each, with paper inside. I put a strip of chicken-wire around the head and “knitted” the ears onto it. everything covered with mortage – works fine.
I add a picture:
/Britta
don’t know where my comment is gone, therefore once again:
I made each ear of two layers chicken-wire, filled with paper. I put a stripe of chicken-wire all around the head and “knitted” the ears onto it.
As I put a layer of mortage onto all of it, it worked fine.
I add a pic:
/Britta
Great way to make the ears. I get a lot of questions about the ears, and from now on I’ll point them to your comment.
Thank you!
)) )
The elephant was made last summer, I already sent a pic then, Britta from Germany, maybe you remember? I NEVER would have managed without your guide; video and drawings. Thanks again for that! The elephant is the best I every made – until now. I was curious about the winter, but he is still undamaged.
People always had problems to see how “big” he is on pics, so I sat down in front of him. (No good comparison, either – as I am almost 2 meters tall..
And yes, the other one’s a dragon’s tail. Just was too lazy to build the whole dragon – now everybody can imagine it in the bushes.
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