My book How to Make Masks! is now officially published, and it’s available on Amazon.com. To celebrate, I put together the first of a short series of videos so you can see the actual process I use to create the masks in the book.

Pantalone is one of the characters in the Italian Commedia del Arte tradition. A Venetian mask called the Bauta, which appears in the book, is made in almost exactly the same way.

Today’s video shows how to make the positive mold over a mask form, using modeling clay (I like to use Super Sculpey). In the next day or two I’ll make another video showing how to make the fast-setting paper mache paste. I’ll use the paste along with large pieces of super-strong shop towels to add two layers of paper mache over the mold we make in today’s video. When that’s dry I’ll make a third video showing how I finish the masks.

So – just in time for Fat Tuesday, here’s how to make a Pantalone mask:

I’m between projects now. My new How to Make Masks! book has gone to the printer, but it still hasn’t appeared on Amazon.com. Soon, though, so I’m on pins and needles, waiting…

Meanwhile, my daughter and I have been having long discussions about artist’s websites, and we’d like to get some feedback from you, too. Questions keep coming up in our discussions, and there doesn’t seem to be any definitive answers for them.

For instance, I found this article about sculptor’s websites that immediately convinced me that the site’s home page should be all about the artist. But, on the other hand, you also want people to see your artwork right away. And it should be really easy to figure out how to buy something – you don’t want people to click so many different links that they change their mind before they hit that order page. And, most new visitors probably won’t land on the home page anyway, because they’ll come in from the search engines and land on one of the inner pages of the site, which means that the whole framework of the site has to be set up to make things easy for visitors.

Jessie is in the middle of re-designing her artist’s site, and, now that my latest book is finished, I’m thinking about trying to sell some of my own work online. Before we make huge decisions about what our sites should look like, we’d really like some feedback from you.

Here’s some of the questions I hope you’ll help us answer:

• When you visit another artist’s website, is there anything in particular that makes you think you’d like to own that person’s work? Is it the artist’s statement? The way the images are presented? A story that goes along with each piece of artwork that makes you feel connected to it? If you’ve actually purchased art from a website recently, what made it easy for you to make that decision?
• What sites have you visited that you liked so much you bookmarked them or sent a link to friends? Did you like the site for the basic design, the work that was shown, the text? Would you actually buy something from that site, or do you just like visiting?
• How important is the “design” of a website when you make a buying decision. Does a pretty design sometimes get in the way?
• How can you encourage people to comment on pages that show a work of art? It’s easy to get comments on a site like this one, where people come to learn how to do something, or share their own knowledge with others. But feedback is so important to any artist (it gets lonely in those studios), so any artist would like to get comments on pages where they show off their work. Have you seen non-how-to art sites that made you want to enter the discussion?

If you have examples of “good” websites that you’d like to share with us, a link would be nice. But be sure to tell us why you like the site, and if it made you want to buy something. There’s a very big difference between an attractive website and one that actually works as a store. I think that’s the biggest problem when an artist designs a site – designing is what we do, and selling is something that we usually hate doing, so we’re probably the wrong people to design our own sites. But, on the other hand, nobody knows our own work better than we do.

Of course, there’s a whole ‘nother issue – should we sell our work from our own website, or should we put our work on a site like etsy.com, instead? I’ve checked the sales stats on a lot of pages on etsy, and most people don’t seem to be doing very well. Is it because their page gets lost among so many different artists? Is it easier to send traffic to a separate site, or to get traffic to a page on a huge site like etsy?

So – if you have an opinion on this subject (and I hope you do) please add your comments to this post. What makes a good artist’s website, from the customer’s point of view? While you’re at it, are there any changes you would like to see in the UltimatePaperMache.com site? Let’s talk…

This will be a quick post this morning. First, I received a question from a reader that I can’t answer, but if someone else out there has some experience and can shed some light on this issue, I would like to know, too. Here’s the email:

Hello from Cape Town, South Africa Jonni!

I just wanted to thank you for a fantastic website.  Yours is by far the nicest papier mache sites I’ve found to date and I’m very excited about trying out your paper clay recipe.  I was hoping you might have some tips for me on getting papier mache to adhere to polystyrene/styrofoam.  I’ve found it to be a great material to shape for a base structure, but my paper always wants to peel away from it.  I use a standard wallpaper glue, though I mix it to a slightly stronger concentrate.  Any advice will be most appreciated J

Kind regards,

Mieke

Suggestions, anyone?

Next, it’s time to show you the working draft of my new mask book’s cover. I don’t believe anyone voted for the duck, but he does add some nice color. The other masks were high on the list of responses I received on previous posts – I want to thank everyone who offered their ideas and input. And now, what do you think about the cover? (I made the image small because that’s the size it will be seen in Amazon.com’s search results).

And finally, I wanted to share my very first “review.” I sent the first few chapters out to a few friends, and Sharon Moreno sent back the following comment. I got such a kick out of it, I just had to share it with you. (I love it when people get my jokes!)

Page 12 from How to Make Masks

Hi Jonni,
Your book is GREAT. I must tell you my favorite images are on page 12. When I came to the picture of your face covered in foil…I started chuckling. When I got to the picture of you taking the mask off that was stuck to your hair…I was roaring with laughter. Had to step away from the computer a bit to get myself under control. That was awhile ago and writing this brings it all back and I can’t stop laughing. I want you to know I love having fun with our artistic endeavors. Thank you….for the fun and the honor of your trust in forwarding on to me these portions of your up-coming, sure to be best seller, paper mache book.

The page Sharon referred to is this one, where I show how to make a simple mask form using aluminum foil and duct tape. That was a fun page to write, but, for obvious reasons, I felt a bit weird doing it in my living room in front of my picture window (the best light in the house for pictures). Some of my neighbors probably think I’m getting a bit old for such foolishness…

That’s all for today. Anyone have an answer for Mieke?

We have a wonderful guest post today, by Ann Halim. I’ll let her take it from here (be sure to see the gallery of photos at the end – click to enlarge):

Christmas 2011 Nativity Project

By Ann Halim

I had the idea to do a life-size interactive Nativity late in 2009, though it seemed an overwhelming job at the time. I’m not a trained artist (though definitely an artist at heart!) and really had no idea how to even start.  In early spring, 2011, I felt God nudging me again and I began to think about how such a project could be done. I decided that paper mache would be the way to go, since it is easily manipulated and inexpensive – always a consideration when you’re working on a non-funded project!

I found this website as I was researching ideas online and came across the guest blog about making a life-size person with chicken wire forms filled with plaster of paris. Then I was REALLY overwhelmed! Thinking of making several people starting from scratch…oh dear! But the tutorial about the baby elephant intrigued me and so began the process that ended with a full-size Nativity complete with a life-size camel (Sa’naam – which means ‘hump’ in Arabic), two sheep, two doves, a donkey and a water pot, all made from paper mache. The Lord graciously helped me find 2 mannequins, which we transformed into Mary and Joseph. Since both were female mannequins, it was an interesting transformation to use Jonni’s mache-clay to widen ‘Josephina’s’ face with a manly square jaw, larger nose and thicker neck.

Enlisting the help of a good friend (who IS a trained artist), we embarked on the camel-making adventure. My friend made a pattern by projecting a camel picture onto the wall and tracing it off. Her husband cut it out, reinforced the seam (since she was longer than a piece of plywood), and fashioned her kneeling legs at the correct angles. Originally I’d wanted a standing camel, but was talked out of it for fear of safety issues with the potential of it falling over on small (or large) children. We tried very hard to make everything as sturdy as possible since I knew that inviting people to walk around and touch the sculptures would lead to some climbing on them (thought we expressly asked them not to do that!). Except for a few scratches and cracks, the entire scene fared quite well during the 6 weeks it was on display.

All the animals (except the doves) started out with a wooden armature as Jonni did with her elephant. We then used wads of newspaper and masking tape to form the legs, body and head with appropriate muscles and facial details. On the donkey and camel we used chicken wire around their midsections to hold the paper wads. We also stuffed plastic bags with paper wads and stapled them onto the legs and neck since that surface area was so great and taping the large areas was impractical. Once the shapes were defined, however, we did mostly cover them with masking tape to provide the water barrier needed to begin mache-ing.

We the used paper strips dipped in flour/water mixture to cover the masked sculptures, allowing it dry between layers. Because I was concerned about making them sturdy, I decided to add a layer or two of mache-clay over the strips. I lost track of how much clay I made and used, but it was several gallons. It provided a very nice outer surface on which to paint.

The camel’s eyes are a bouncy ball cut in half, which was painted and glazed. People were so intrigued with the eyes that they poked at them to see what they were made of and the paint cracked! I re-painted once, but it kept happening, so we just left it cracked. I think we would have used something else if we’d known… Her eyelashes came from the back of Joseph’s wig, cut and meticulously arranged in small bunches and glued on, then dry brushed with light paint to match her head hair. Her forelock hair is twine or small rope, unraveled and glued in small bunches on the top of her head. Both camel and donkey tails were made from unraveled pieces of rope.

Originally I had wanted the sheep to be soft so the children would enjoy touching them, but soon realized they were going to look like stuffed animals if we used fabric or faux fur to cover them. We tried several different techniques before deciding on paper towels dipped in the flour/water mixture then scrunched onto the sheep bodies to make their wool. I added blobs of clay here and there so their wool coat didn’t look like flower rosettes. The surface was not touch-friendly (read: prickly!), but in the end, that may have saved them from being damaged.

The water pot was two baskets glued and taped together, then covered with paper wads and tape. I wasn’t happy with the shape after the first phase, so added the two extra bumps on the upper and lower edges before covering it with mache-clay, then paint.

The doves started as wads of paper with cardboard beaks, tails and wings. I formed the feet out of floral wire then taped and mache-ed them. My friend patiently cut chicken feathers apart and applied them one at a time. I, on the other hand, was making the flying dove and wasn’t quite so meticulous. My dove ended up looking like a startled chicken! With a little help from my artist friend, it was tamed down, given bead eyes instead of painted ones and looked more like a dove than a chicken (though if I were to do it over, I would try to find dove feathers instead of using chicken ones).

A week and a half before installation, I decided we just HAD to have a donkey so he was made rather quickly (the camel took about 5 weeks start to finish). In my haste I painted him a lovely gray, but failed to notice it was semi-gloss paint! He looked like a carousel horse. New paint in a matte finish rescued him from the carnival…J His mane consists of bristles from 3 inexpensive brooms. The color matched perfectly, a blessing considering it was nearly time to do the installation.

From the first sheep to installation day it took about 5 months and the help of over 30 people to finish. It was a very fun and labor-intensive project.

A big thanks to Jonni for her wonderful elephant tutorial which was just what I needed to kick-start this project.

Wow – folks, are you as impressed as I am? (I love the way one of the sheep is looking out, as though he hears the people who came to see the display.)

Well, this is it – the last two projects I planned for the book are finished. I think I’ve run out of pages, so one or more of the masks I’ve shown you might not be included – I’ll have to make some tough decisions in the next few days. In fact, in the last post I said only one mask was left to finish, because I didn’t think I’d be able to fit the outlaw into the book – now I’ve decided I like him so much, I’ll fit him in even if I have to leave something else out.

The Texas Outlaw was the first mask I made using the new methods, and it’s the last one I finished. I have a phobia when it comes to painting people, so I kept putting it off. I’m glad he’s finally finished, though – it makes me happy to think of a tough guy with a bright red mustache trying to disguise himself by covering up his eyes. I think this hombre spends a lot of time in the hoosegow. (By the way, why can’t Lois Lane recognize the man she loves whenever he changes his shirt and puts on a pair of glasses?)  I made the outlaw a Texas-sized ten-gallon hat, but the hat probably won’t make it into the book.

The Celtic helmet isn’t a mask, of course, but I thought it would be fun to see if it’s possible to make paper mache look like rusty iron. (I think it looks pretty authentic, don’t you?) And I did want to create something for the role-playing and military history buffs.

I thought I’d need to use more than the usual two layers of paper mache around the rim to get the edge to look thick enough to be believable, but the original photo from a museum collection does show a thin edge on the real helmet, too, so I left it as-is. I bought the Instant Iron and Instant Rust online, so I didn’t read the warning labels until it arrived – not family-friendly stuff. It was fun to use, though. Because of the toxic product, and the non-mask-ness of the helmet, it might be the project that gets bumped from the book.

If you haven’t yet “voted” on which mask you think should be on the cover of the new “how to make a mask” book, you can find the other masks here and here. I always value your input.

On a completely different note, one of our regular readers and a previous guest poster, Jim Kransberger, is a featured artist in the upcoming book Humor in Craft. Jim’s a busy guy – his work will also be shown, starting tonight, at the Blue Spiral gallery, in Asheville, NC. Congratulations, Jim!

And now, back to work!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope life is treating you well so far.

My paper mache mask book project is winding down – just one more mask to finish, and one more chapter to write. I ordered some Instant Iron and Instant Rust so my ancient iron Celtic helmet should look very realistic. The hard part is waiting for it to get here. OK – the hard part really is going through all the words in the book and finding the zillions of typos that hide so well. But I won’t start that project until the helmet is done.

The three I finished since the last post are shown below. I want to thank everyone who took the time to “vote” for the one you think should go on the cover.  In the next week I’ll be going through the list of suggestions you gave me. The Kudu below isn’t an option for the cover (for search engine optimization reasons – TMI…) but if you still want to vote you can add the butterfly and owl to your list of candidates. I love hearing your suggestions. I don’t even mind if you vote twice!

By the way, I couldn’t stop myself from snapping that picture at the top of this post. That cat looks so sweet, doesn’t she? A few seconds after I took the picture she jumped onto my work table in the middle of my paint (I managed to move all the important stuff in time) and then insisted that it was time for her cuddles. When she insists, all work stops. I guess that’s what cats are for, right?

Several months ago I had this crazy idea that I could finish my paper mache mask book by the first of December. Ha! I’m still not even close, and here it is almost Christmas already.

Well, I may not be very fast, but I’m having a great time with these projects. I’m using positive molds made with modeling clay — no more of the expensive silicone or urethane rubber molds that I tried before. And the paper mache is made with just two layers of Scott Shop Towels®, pasted together with a plaster and glue mixture that was inspired by Mark Morse, who mentioned the plaster-based gesso he uses. The result is a strong mas that is incredibly light because there’s no armature left inside.

And, believe it or not, they’re actually easier to make than masks made with paper mache clay – I found that rather surprising, since the clay makes other sculptures so much easier.

I still have at least four more masks to finish. I wanted to include a Celtic helmet, since the unicorn is wearing a silver ornament hanging from his horn that was given to him by Boudicca, the last queen of the Celts. Unfortunately, I may be running out of space. Printers charge by the page, dang it, so I have to prioritize. Maybe I can still fit it in, though — I should know by next week. And the book itself should be finished by the first of February, so readers will have plenty of time to make their favorite mask for Mardi Gras. (At least I hope I can get it done by then. Wish me luck.)

Here’s what I have finished so far (I still haven’t decided which one should go on the cover. Any suggestions?):

Today’s guest post is by Barbara M. Kaplowitz, who offered to tell us how her interesting sculptural piece was made — and what all the individual design features mean to her. I love the way she created a piece that will be such a strong reminder of her mother – and it is a beautiful piece of art, as well. So, from this point on, here’s Barbara (be sure to click on all the photos below to see them full-sized:

Hi Jonni,

I am sending along a photo of  my most recent papier mache project. The dress design is taken from the dress my mother is wearing in the photos dated 1936.  The necklace is hers as well.  I had the two photos reframed to match the art deco design and have them all on display in my foyer.

My mother’s name was Anne, hence Mannequin became M’Annie.

Here is the birth of my project:  I bought a papier-mache mannequin (pink one in photos) in a vintage shop in old town Leesburg, VA.  The owner had 7 different forms on her walls and I mentioned that I could see them all dressed in vintage clothes of the Art Deco period.  So I bought one to use on my project.  (had no idea when I went to lunch with friends that I would come home with a dirty old mannequin!)

When I got home I realized the mannequin needed work to smooth out the ridges and grooves from use and age. I worked with self – drying clay and worked it in all around and sanded the many white areas.  When it was dry I used the original mannequin as the armature and produced a second mannequin made of papier-mache by putting newspaper and glue over plastic wrap on the armature.  When it dried, I pried it off.   Voila! I had two!

I painted  the new one (white one in photos) with lots of gesso and let it dry.  Then realized I had the photos of my mom and dad and her dress was perfect for the mannequin.

I used plaster tape which served as papier mache fabric and formed the dress design with strips to form the striped pattern on the body of the dress.  I made the belt by scrunching the wet plaster tape and the straps were scrunched too a bit to show folds.  I also made folds randomly on the body with the strips.  I made a bow and added that too.

When dry I found wonderful metallic paint in black and champagne colors which represented the colors on the photo.  After several coats of paint and touch up I sealed it with matte Modge-Podge.  I drilled a hole on the form in the back and placed it over a nail in the wall.

I had the 2 photos reframed to match the mannequin and hung them together above other family treasures on the table.

So there it is in a nutshell.

Barbara

Thank you, Barbara! And now, here’s the photos she sent so we can see how the piece was made.

This is just a quick announcement: My book, Make Animal Sculptures with Paper Mache Clay, now has a Kindle version. I think it looks best on the free Kindle for PC ap because the photos are nice and big, and they’re in color.

Now that I’m finished with that little project, I can go back to working on my latest book about paper mache masks. It’s coming along really well. I am particularly fond of the unicorn. And the Texas bandit. And the three Venetian masks (five, if you count the cat and the owl). And the Neanderthal skull is pretty cool…

There will be 12 projects in the book if I can squeeze them all in, and ten of them are done already, almost. I haven’t painted any of them yet, so I still can’t show them to you.

The best part, in my opinion, is my new method for making masks with just two strong layers of paper mache. I’ll post more when I’m closer to the finish line. Wish me luck.

And one more thing – I updated the blog recently, and we now have our image upload function working again. If you have any sculptures you’d like to show off, it’s now easier to do. You’ll see the upload button below the comment field on every page.

That’s all for now. Have a great week, everyone.

For anyone who is interested in my foal that I have now finished I am sending some of the details of how and why it was made.

Last year I was asked to renovate a rocking horse – an old fiberglass one that had been dumped on the local tip. I got on the internet and by so doing came across Jonni’s website  and her information on paper mache clay. This I decided was something I needed to play with, and after looking at her details on her foal thought that as a lifelong horse lover I should attempt one as well.

Pepper started life as some scrap aluminum that I had in the shed, I stuffed it with scrunched up newspaper, covered that with paper mache, and then started with the paper mache clay, the texture of which improved with my proficiency of mixing. It took some time to build up the muscles and bone structure. After a few weeks I was happy with that, I then had to go overseas for 7 weeks to stay with my daughter so had to put everything on hold – all artists will feel for me here as it is very frustrating to have to leave work in progress.

I spent some time researching what to use to hopefully make Pepper waterproof as I would like to have him in the front yard. I have come up with ‘Flow Coat’ I am not sure if this is available outside Australia, it is a finishing product for fiberglass and goes on beautifully, it has an additive that makes it set, and it is advisable to only mix what can be used in about 20 minutes as it goes off. I have used 3 coats of this absolutely everywhere on the foal.

The mane and tail are real horsehair from a friend’s horses and are stuck in with external waterproof glue and I am hoping that this seals the holes made for insertion and that no rain will run down the hair. I plan to also paint a polyurethane varnish over the whole thing now that it is painted, but this is to help the paint from wearing off.

I have to find someone who can weld me a stand, as my original idea of incorporating stiff wire on the two raised legs did not work, I should really have made him with all four feet firmly planted on the ground, but I have to make things hard for myself!!!! He will then be placed in the front yard on a patch of artificial turf I have placed in the middle of a flower bed

Watch this space!!!