We have a real treat today – and a great challenge, too. First, let me tell you how this all came about:

I’ve recently been in contact with Janaina Matarazzo, who started the Recycled Paper project 3 years ago. The project participants are young artists from Moreomaoto, in Botswana. Their beautiful paper mache items are sold at a shop at Meno A Kwena Tented Camp & Safaris, which works as a Trust to support conservation and community projects.

This morning Janaina “introduced” me (by email) to Kabo, one of the talented artists in this group. You can see him and a paper mache elephant head he’s making below.

Here is what Kabo wrote for us:

I’m Kabo Chingapane, who like to do few things about art, but well interested to know everything about Art. I have started my Art in primary level and It was got approved in secondary. So far I do have few skills about doing art, so the main that I like to know is sculpturing, I want to know the steps, when you are doing sculpture and end up putting paper mache on It. And also I want to know uses when you apply paper mache, even to make texture on the animal. But I’m so interested off on doing wall heads of wild animals.

Kabo's Elephant Head, Made for Wall Display

And, for a bit more background information, Janaina wrote this:

We from Meno A Kwena Tented Camp & Safaris Botswana, have a sustainable tourism concept and we do care a lot about wildlife conservation and do benefits the local people from tourism, so they also appreciate what they have and help us to protect and secure the future of nature and wildlife. Kabo is from the community near by camp called Moreomaoto and work for us at the Arts Studio. We encourage artist from the community to develop their skills as an artist. We do create new projects at the community considering the lifestyle they have there, no electricity, is far from town, they are basically rural areas. So arts is a great way to work with. Kabo in particular is a truly artist so I’m always really happy to encourage him to develop his arts skills for perhaps one day have better chances and opportunities in life, doing something great.

I agree that Kabo is truly an artist – his elephant head shows that he has a great understanding of the proportions and forms of this great beast. I can also relate to his desire to find new ways to create details and textures, which is difficult when working with paper strips and paste.

I sent my two books about paper mache to Janaina, and I hope that the ideas for creating armatures will be helpful to Kabo as he creates more animal wall sculptures. Unfortunately, much of the information in the books about finishing, texturing and adding details will be difficult for him and his fellow artists to implement because they don’t have the same access to materials that we do.

I know it’s possible to create lifelike details with paper strips and glue, but I’m certainly not an expert because I rely on paper mache clay for details and textures. That’s why I suggested that Kabo might get some better advice if he were to write a post for this blog – this way, he can hear suggestions from you, the many talented paper mache artists who visit this site. If you have any suggestions for Kabo that you think he could use for his paper mache animals, I know he would be very happy to hear them.

Just as a side note, I have wanted to visit Botswana for years. Now that I’ve met Janaina and Kabo, and learned about their community art program and the Safari Camp, I want to go even more. I think it is so wonderful that the Internet allows us to get to know people from so many parts of the world. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all afford to go visit them in person?

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 minor changes in size and proportions, this could easily work for a human hand, too (or zombies, for that matter). It won’t be covered with the paper mache clay until he entire armature, including that unfinished head, are all assembled.

Cutting wire for “bones.”

I first drew the chimpanzee’s hand onto a piece of paper, using several references that I found on the Internet. Then I cut 10 pieces of tie wire for the “bones” of the hand. Tie wire is cheap, it’s easy to bend and cut, but it rusts. I like using it for smaller items like this, where you don’t really need the strength of heavier wire. However, you do get rust all over your hands and clothes if you aren’t careful. And it needs to be completely covered before anything wet is added to the armature, or the rust will migrate out through the final layer of paint and ruin everything.

Twisting the wires together to form a wrist.

I used two pairs of pliers, one to hold all the wires together at the wrist, and the other one to do the actual twisting. I continued to check it against the drawing to make sure the wires were still in the right place and the fingers were still the right length.

Marking the joints.

I want to be able to bend the joints of the armature before deciding on the final pose. To make sure the bends go in the right place, I wrapped the wire with masking tape, and then marked the joints. The tricky ones are the first knuckle of the hand, where the fingers separate from the palm. Looking at my own hand, I saw that the actual joint is below the line shown on my drawing, which was drawn from the palm side of the chimp’s hand. I want the fingers to bend at the joint, not at the top of the webbing between the fingers, so I marked the joint below the line on the drawing.

Adding aluminum foil.

Now I’m almost done with one hand. I added aluminum foil to the palm and between each joint on the fingers and thumb. The dips between the aluminum foil will mark the joints after all the padding is in place, and the aluminum foil will help stiffen the bones. I made sure to leave plenty of space between the fingers so I can add paper mache clay without making the fingers too fat.

Final taping.

I covered the aluminum foil with masking tape to make sure everything stayed put. Once the hands have been firmly attached to the rest of the chimp sculpture’s armature, I’ll be able to choose a pose I like before adding the paper mache clay.

I do hope the UPS truck shows up today – I’m really anxious to see how the chimp’s head comes out. I hoped that I could use Super Sculpey over the hollow resin skull I made, but it didn’t work. The Sculpey cracked, and couldn’t be repaired. (Maybe I should have read the Sculpey instructions before starting the project!) My current plan is to use paper mache clay over the resin skull instead of Sculpey. The aqua-resin that I used for the skull (and which I’ll also use as a final protective coating) can be painted, so I hope that also means that the paper mache clay will stick to it. However, I wanted to make a few changes to the skull itself before I re-sculpt the head. Sometimes it’s good to have an excuse to start over, because I get a chance to correct errors that I probably would have been too lazy to fix if everything else seemed to come out OK.

And now my break is over, and I’m off to finish the other hand armature.

What a treat we have today! Nicholas Allen is our guest artist, and he’s going to tell us what it was like to create the head of a life-sized T-Rex, named Georges, in a small Paris apartment. What a story, and what a beautiful sculpture. I can just imagine how exciting it would be to meet Georges in person in his new museum home. (You may remember Nick’s previous article about Marusya, a lady T-Rex who now lives in a museum in Moscow.)

Be sure to scroll down to the photo gallery below to see Georges in several stages of development.

© Nicholas Allen 2012

I naively thought it would take a couple of months to build a 1:1 reconstruction of the head. I was pretty thorough about measuring the T-Rex skull replica in the palaeontological museum in Paris, not touching it, but coming close enough with my tape measure to ensure the security guard kept a careful eye on me. I went twice in fact, to double-check some measurements. So I should have guessed this would be a major project, and not two months of work.

It took 14 months to complete. I couldn’t say how many hundreds of hours of work this was. Sometimes I would labour obsessively for days, through the night until I saw the first glimmers of sunshine across the Paris rooftops. Other times the model would stand idle for days or weeks while I was away or busy earning a living.

The technique is simple enough. Cardboard armature, taped up, bits of hardboard here and there, some parts fastened together with plastic cable ties (wonderful things) while Jonni’s papier mache clay formula dried. I didn’t use all the ingredients, just joint filler, wood glue, toilet roll and linseed oil. I also used a lot of PVA in mixes, as it was cheaper. The application was occasionally a couple of centimetres thick and would take three weeks to dry deep enough, but usually layers of a few millimetres would dry enough over a few days to sand.

Looking back on the process, I know I used way too many materials. These are cheaper in Britain than France, so it became a back-breaking ritual to lug back massive bags of glue and filler and tools on the overnight coach from London.

The secret to any large scale model, I concluded, is don’t be in a hurry to do the ‘sexy stuff’, ie applying the clay, but rather get the cardboard form as exact as possible before you do that. The neck housing and actual skull had to be robust, and the clay and cardboard together are up to half an inch deep on the neck, if you consider the layer of scales I added to the basic clay finish. But constant adjustment and change to the actual snout or cheekbones etc meant the clay just kept piling up, and more materials would be needed. I lost count of how many litres of glue and PVA I used, but I would guess around 30-40 litres.

If I built another head the same size, I could achieve the same finish using perhaps just over half the amount. So measure, measure and measure again, plan out your design exhaustively, and only then get stuck into the clay application. I actually found myself sitting next to a master potter at a dinner in London last year, and she sniffed in disdain at my use of the word clay, but ‘synthetic clay’ will do for me.

The model needed a sturdy frame, and one that would dismantle for transportation from UK to France. I befriended a metal worker in my hometown and used his gear to weld a frame out of box steel and square bar. I designed it myself to include two triangular sections that would slide into the model’s upper snout section and lower jaw. The head itself disassembles into two head parts, upper and lower (Photo4), and the neck, which I sadly had to saw into two parts to get out of my door.

I should add that I built this model in a tiny sixth-floor bedsit in Paris. Never again. Living with your work is unhealthy, both mentally and physically (dust), and having to build everything to dismantle and carry down stairs means 30% more work.

The teeth were carved from wood, all 58 of them, exactly the same size as the original. As careful as I tried to be, I still managed to slit my finger open a couple of times with the modelling knife, giving ‘Georges’ a taste of blood as his ancestors so enjoyed. The eyes I had specially made by a taxidermist suppliers in Snowdonia in North Wales. They were expensive but I knew I would regret it later if bought inferior ones or made them myself, after all the work I put in. It was money well spent, these magnificent glittering green glass eyes really bring him to life. Finally, the colouring is a mix of aerosol spray paints, which enabled a nice muted, mottled effect.

In early April I hired a small van, dismantled and loaded Georges, and drove 12 hours in pouring rain, with one three-hour breakdown, to his new home, Le Musee des Dinosaures in Esperaza in southern France. I spent a few weeks writing to various places to see if they wanted to take the model as a donation. The museum in Esperaza jumped on the offer, and I couldn’t have asked for a better home. I hope to make a living building models in the future, but for now I’m happy learning my craft. Forty thousand visitors seeing him each year is reward enough. And I got a gratifying sense of the interest the model holds for people just seeing my friends’ reaction to it (photo 15).

The last thing I would say to anyone considering doing a large model is be a rottweiler about the whole project, get your teeth into it and don’t let go. There were times when I despaired, felt exhausted and exasperated at having no suitable space or tools to work with, or realising that I had done some bits wrong and that I had to redo them, even though it meant drilling, sawing and grinding off days of work (see photos 5,6,7,12). But if you know something isn’t right, do fix it, because it’ll bug you later if you don’t. So good luck with your own projects folks, and never give up.

Nick Allen

The video below was shared on the Yahoo Paper Mache Art group this morning, and I just had to show it to you all. Alex Adams and his assistants created 22 fabulously inventive puppets and masks for a children’s theater production of Dr. Dolittle, and they managed to make them all in just a few months. What an inspiration! (And what a fun job!)

You can find Alex’s Facebook page here, and read more about the play here.

Thanks, Jean, for sharing your son’s incredible puppetry. And for all of you who love paper mache but are not yet subscribed to the Paper Mache Art Yahoo group, you can sign up here. I don’t comment very often on the group (I yammer on quite enough here, I think ) but I do learn some amazing things from the group. Highly recommended.

Today’s the day when the pet portrait auction begins, to raise funds for the Global Sighthound Rescue group. If you haven’t yet had a chance to see the work done by the artists who are participating, I thought I’d give you a short tour of their studios. Click on the links below to see their artwork and learn how their unique pieces are made.

Deborah Masouras does beautiful batik paintings with colors that are so glowing, they almost look like stained glass. You can see how these wax paintings are made on her blog.

Jen Zalewski is offering a linocut print portrait of your pet. You can see how the prints are made here. (I love that wolf!)

Xan Blackburn is going to make a soft sculpture for the winner of her auction. You  may recognize her name from her frequent comments on this blog, or from her guest post that showed us how she created a faux-bronze paper mache dog. Xan also designed the website for the Global Sighthound Rescue group, and she and her husband have adopted a dog through the group. Check out the gallery on her site to see her beautiful pet portraits.

Mindy Thomas will be creating a pet portrait on a small ceramic pot. Take a look at her blog to see the incredible detail of her portraits.

Sarah Snavely may already be familiar to you if you love animal sculptures. Her ceramic greyhounds are quite distinct, and she has a national (and perhaps international) reputation. Check out the gallery on her blog to see why.

Jonni Good – that’s me, of course. I’ll be making a mini display mask of someone’s pet or favorite critter. The puppy’s mask at the top of this post was made as a “practice” piece, just to see how a small mask would look on the wall. Now imagine a small mask of your dog, cat, (or wolverine, puma, orangutan, ??) hanging on your own wall, if you put in the winning bid.

Suzie Collins is a pet portrait artist. She’s offering a graphite portrait of your pet, made from your photo.  You can see samples of her work on her Facebook page.

The bidding has already begun, so if you’d like to participate, click here to see how the auction works, and choose your artist.

Even if you don’t intend to bid on any of the artwork, I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the forum that Xan put together just for this event. (Nice job, Xan!) You can see all of the artists’ work right in one place, add your comments and encouragement, and see how the auction is coming along. You can even meet some of the beautiful dogs that are helped by this rescue group.

I hope to see you there.

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 of my experiments have involved the same little bunny – the one shown here. I wanted to find out:

1. If a foam shape can be used as a permanent armature for a paper mache sculpture, so that a design could be reproduced without starting from scratch, and
2. If flexible foam can be used as a re-usable form for a paper mache mask, even if it has deep undercuts, and
3. If a UV-absorbing varnish can effectively waterproof paper mache, without causing color changes, yellowing, cracking, or other problems over time.

Paper Mache Bunny, Outside Near Lamb's Ears

We won’t know how well the varnish works until the bunny has been outside for a few months, but the foam portion of the experiment went well. Here’s what I did:

I made the little bunny with modeling clay, and then created the silicone mold and a plaster of Paris support mold, shown below. I had a piece of corrugated plastic left over from building my greenhouse window last year, so I used it for the base of the mold. I used hot glue to attach the base to the silicone mold, and then clamped them all together, just to make there was  a tight seal.

Silicone Bunny Mold

Two part flexible foam was mixed up and poured into the mold, and allowed to set. It was ready to come out of the mold in about 30 minutes.

Foam Bunny

For the bunny shown here, I covered the foam bunny with one layer of fast-setting paper mache paste and blue Scott shop towels. I did not use a release, so the paper mache stuck fast to the foam. The recipe and method of using the paste and shop towels are in the videos about how to make a Pantalone mask. It would have been better to add two layers of paper mache, but I only used one.

Foam Bunny Covered with Paper Mache

The bunny was painted when the paper mache was dry, and this morning I coated it with a solvent-based acrylic varnish with anti-UV properties. The varnish is supposed to be waterproof, and it’s intended for outside use. It’s made by Pebeo. I’m sure there are other UV-absorber varnishes out there that would also work.

Some people use spar varnish over the final layer of paint, but when I tried that the sun cracked the varnish and it all chipped off. Rich uses spar varnish under the paint, right on top of the paper mache. He then paints, and then uses deck sealer over the paint. (I hope he’ll correct me if I got this wrong.) He says he’s had really good luck with this system of waterproofing paper mache. But, just to be a contrarian, I wanted to see if this anti-UV varnish could be used effectively after the paper mache is painted, without any other form of protection. We shall see.

I’ll stick him out under the lilac bush when the varnish is dry. Wish him luck – he may need it.

I’m happy with the way the paper mache covered the foam. I didn’t actually design the original clay model with this in mind, so the details were not exaggerated the way they should have been if I were thinking ahead. (That’s why I only used one layer of paper mache.)

However, since the foam was flexible, it was possible to press the pasted shop towels deep into the lines around the eyes and toes, so he still looks very close to the original. I think it’s possible that I could have used the second layer of paper mache without losing all the detail.

I don’t think this system would be terribly useful for most people, but I think if someone sold paper mache items and had one particular design that needed to be made over and over again, having the foam core ready-made could be a real time-saver. But the piece would need to sell for a price that covered the extra expense of the silicone mold and the foam.

I can also see this being used to make just one copy of a modeling clay sculpture with paper mache, if the piece was “important” enough. The molds and foam are expensive, but not as expensive as bronze, by any means. (I may actually try that, if I ever make a figure sculpture worth saving for posterity.)

Now – for the final question: Can you use flexible foam for a re-usable mask form? To find out, I used a release on another foam bunny, and covered it with paper mache. When the paper mache was hard, I carefully pulled the foam out. It worked, even though there are deep undercuts around the ears and under the chin.

Inside of Paper Mache Bunny

This is also something that wouldn’t be terribly useful for most artists. However, I can imagine a theater prop-maker needing masks for an entire Greek chorus, and needing all of them to be the same. Other mold methods would usually work just fine, but if there are deep undercuts and the mask-maker doesn’t want to use multi-part molds, this method would work rather well. Or if you need several elephants or masks with large antlers, you could combine both ideas – leave the foam inside the horns or trunk, while removing the foam from the face area.

I ended up with more bunnies than any one person needs, but I learned a few things and I had fun with it, even though I’m not quite sure how I’ll ever use what I learned. Someday, though, I’ll bet this will come in handy…

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos of their paper mache cats. If you would like your own cat to be included in this gallery, send me the photos and I’ll add them. They can be cats you made following the paper mache cat videos I made, or they can be cats you made following  another method. If you already posted your own cat as a comment on another page and you’d like the photo to be included in this gallery, just let me know. (Copyright laws don’t allow me to move your photos and comments without permission – or at least that’s what I’ve been told.)

Click on the thumbnail images to see them larger. Since I haven’t figured out how to make comments show up in the lightbox, see the artists’ comments about their cats below. (If you know how to get the comments in the lightbox with the pictures, where they belong, please let me know).

The artists:

Joanne Gennarella said:  “The snow leopard was reworked from my original one sent to you when I did her with the [Monique Robert] method of paper mache.  This time I went over snow leopard with paper mache clay for a more realistic fur look. For calico kitty – I used my usual armature of wire, paper, and tape, over which I layered paper mache clay.   This cat was inspired by Jonni’s class tutorial of her pretty cat.  Good job Jonni with the class, let’s have some more.”

Vivian Dominguez said: “I saw your post and wanted to submit my cat!  It’s not done using your method.  This cat was made with newspaper, masking tape, glue, yarn, misc fabric, toothpicks, and fishing wire.  The head, ears, limbs and paws all move with fishing wire and the eyes will be animated on later.  I made the cat for a webseries in the works…you can learn a bit more about it here  http://squirrelkingthemovie.blogspot.com/p/series-synopsis.html . ”

Ron Gordon said: “Here is a pic of my bobcat. I followed your lessons online.”

Nice work, everyone! Now let’s add to the paper mache cat gallery – send in your photos soon, and see them here.

OK, it’s now unofficially “official” – we have a new page for anyone who would like to join our new Daily Sculptors group. The new page is here — you’ll also be able to find a link to it at the top of every page on the blog, right under the pig.

Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, says the biggest thing that sets the “serious” artist apart from that amateur is simply showing up for work every day. That’s something a lot of us have a hard time with. I know I do. So getting some help and encouragement for that one little thing could make a big difference for a lot of us.

The new page is not a spot for “showing off” our work (that’s what the Photos from Readers page is for). The Daily Sculptors page is a place for us to show that we showed up and did the work, whether it was “successful” or not. We can upload photos to prove to ourselves and to our friends that today, again, we did the work. Make sense? It could also be a great place to ask for feedback if we know something we’re working on “isn’t quite right,” but we can’t figure out what it is. A few more pairs of eyes might help.

It’s weird — I have no problem “showing up for work” when I’m in book-writing mode. I sit down every morning at 6am or earlier and work for 10 hours straight, 7 days a week, for three months or more — until the book is done. Each day something gets written, even if it’s something that has to be done over tomorrow. I never even consider not sitting down to work on the book because “I don’t feel like it.” It never crosses my mind.

But when it comes to my artwork, I tend to wait until I’m “in the mood.” Art is something I do for fun. I don’t get paid for it. I do get paid for my books (hopefully) and I don’t get paid for a book that hasn’t been written, so I take my writing seriously (but not too seriously).

I don’t take my sculpting seriously. I would like that to change, and that’s why I’ve challenged myself (and anyone who wants to join me) to sculpt something every single day.

(Pressfield also says that “serious” or “professional” artists get paid for their work. Maybe that means we need to have a nice discussion soon about how to price our artwork).

On our new Daily Sculptors page, I’ll be posting whatever piece I’m working on that day. I hope you’ll do the same. Several people have already stated their interest in joining us, and bmaskmaker found the new page and posted yesterday, even before I announced it! I think that’s a good sign.

It doesn’t matter at all what medium you work in (doesn’t have to be paper mache). It doesn’t matter how big your pieces are, or how much got finished today. It’s just about encouraging ourselves and others to do some work on our craft, every single day.

• The new page can be used as a journal.
• You can tell us about your work,
• Or something that inspired you today,
• Or problems you’re having with motivation or any other stumbling block that gets in the way.
• You can post photos of your work (set your camera to “save for the web” so the upload doohicky will accept them. If images are too big, the server gets unhappy).
• And you can add encouragement for others who post.

If you skip a day or two, you won’t be sent to detention – there are no rules.

So – if it sounds like as much fun to you as I think it will be, please join us. Bookmark the new page. If you have friends who sculpt and you think they’d like to join our Daily Sculptors group, please invite them. Lets make this fun!

I’ll see you over at the Daily Sculptors page.

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 cat to show up on the new post, just send me the image, along with the way you’d like your name to appear in the credits.

I know that many of you have already posted photos of your cats. Since I would legally need to ask every single one of you for permission to move your images to a new post (and I’m way too lazy to do that), I’m hoping that you’ll go ahead and send your photos to me even if you already posted them in the comment area of another post.  I will assume that anyone sending me their cat photo is giving me official permission to publish it here on this site.

In fact, I’d like to see your paper mache cat even if you made it some other way than the methods I showed you in the videos. If your cat was made differently, please mention it when you send the photo so I can let people know. We can all learn new things from each other.

“Daily Sculpture Challenge”

My experimenting phase seems to be over, and now I’m trying push myself to get better at portrait and figure sculpture. I am convinced that the best way to learn a new skill fastest is to use it as often as possible — so I’ve challenged myself to create at least one new sculpture a day. If that sounds like a fun idea, I hope you’ll join me.

Since paper mache dries too slowly to make it a good medium for this particular challenge, I’m just going to use modeling clay. If any of the pieces turn out well, I might turn them into small finished works using the methods I used to make my hippo and cougar. I also think it would be fun to try finishing them with the “faux encaustic” method mentioned in the Surface Treatment Workshop book – but I’m really nowhere near actually having anything to finish at this point. What I really want to concentrate on is making as many portraits and figure sculptures as I can, so I can make as many mistakes as possible as fast as possible. An, of course, I’m hoping that will help me improve my sculpting skills.

In fact, I just received another video by Dan Reader, this one on beginning figure sculpting. Just as soon as I hit the “publish” button on this post, I’m going to rip the plastic off the video and watch it all the way through. I learned so much from his portrait video, so I know this one will be good, too.

There’s already an online group called the Daily Painters (Jessie joined quite some time ago, but I don’t know if she’s still a member). But that does give me an idea… It’s always easier to stick to a personal commitment if other people join you. So – would you like to join an informal “daily sculptor’s” group? Any medium, any subject, any size – just to encourage each other to really push ourselves to learn as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. If anyone decides to join me, we can figure out a way to make it easy to share our daily sculptures. Maybe a new Flickr page, or something…

Most of the daily painters do very small paintings. I think that’s a good idea, so my portraits will be quite small, too – 5 or six inches, or so. I’m now on day three (and only two portraits – I have to get started on #3 soon). Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Small Portrait Sculpture #2

Small Portrait Sculpture #1

Both of these ladies were photographed by government photographers during the 30′s and 40′s. The sculptures are reliefs, and small, so they don’t take much time – at least until I go back and try to fix them and make them better. In fact, now that I see the photos, I see more things I need to fix – but that means I’m learning already, doesn’t it?

(I really dislike the stickiness of the modeling clay I have on hand. I ordered some “Monster Clay,” but it isn’t here yet. It isn’t supposed to be as sticky.)

Anyway, enough rambling for one day. Send in those paper mache cats, if you have one. No deadline, since we can always add more photos to the post, but it would be nice to get them up soon and show them off.  And let me know in the comment section if you’d like to “join” a daily sculptor’s group. (And let me know exactly what you mean by “joining” and “group” too, while you’re at it. This is just a kernel of an idea so far, so any suggestions are more than welcome.)

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 drawback is that it isn’t quite as strong – but I still think it’s an improvement over the original version.

To keep things from getting too confusing, I put the latest video and the new version of the recipe on the previous post.

On another note, I have a bit more information that I can now share with you about the fundraiser I’ve been invited to participate in. I told you about it, very briefly, when I showed you the little mini-mask I made of a puppy who came to visit, uninvited. That was a practice mask, to see what it would be like to do a portrait of someone’s pet. Now I can tell you more about the event itself:

There will be an informal online auction to help a group called the Global Sighthound Rescue. They do wonderful work rescuing greyhounds and other sighthound breeds who are in dire need of help. Seven artists have joined the effort, so there will be seven “winners” at the end of the fundraising event. At the end of the auction each of the seven artists will produce a portrait of “their” winner’s favorite pet.

I hope you’ll click on that link above and go check out the work that’s being offered for this event. These folks do incredible work, and it’s rather humbling to be included among this group. (By the way, if you decide to bid on a mask from me, I won’t mind at all if your “pet” happens to be a baby orangutan or a rhino – as long as it will look fetching as a small display mask, like the one I’ll be making for the event. )

I know you’ll want to learn more about this organization and the dogs they help. Click here to go to their website. If you click on the names of the adopted sighthounds in the right-hand column, you can read their stories.

Now, please go check out the latest version of the paper mache clay recipe. Since so many people have helped with this new version, I think we need to come up with a new name for it. Steve Sack started us calling the original Jonni Clay, but that won’t work any more. I thought about calling it simply “ultimate paper mache,” after the title of this blog. What do you think we should call it?