Painting the Tortoise

June 14, 2010

The tortoise is finally done – almost. This photo is really false advertising, since his paint is still drying. I’ll walk to the hardware store in a few minutes to buy the marine varnish I hope will protect him out in the wilderness near my pond. He’ll stay in the house until several coats of [...]

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Ploughshare Tortoise Sculpture, Stage Two

June 4, 2010

The ploughshare tortoise that I started a week ago has been progressing slowly. I blame the rain. Everything seems to slow down at my house when we have unending clouds and rain – it just seems like the best time to curl up with a mystery novel and hibernate for a while. However, I have [...]

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Endangered Tortoise Sculpture, Stage One

May 27, 2010

Today I started a small sculpture of an endangered Ploughshare Tortoise, (Geochelone yniphora) — also known as the Angonoka, Madagascar Angulated Tortoise, or Madagascar Tortoise. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about endangered animals lately, and I found the story of this tortoise in Jane Goodall’s book Hope for Animals and Their World: How [...]

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Painting the Chimp

May 17, 2010

Recently Carmen asked me why I like using Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid for painting my sculptures, so I thought it would be fun to show you how I use it. I confess – I don’t feel very comfortable using a brush, so my painting technique feels more sculptural than painterly. I put on color, rub [...]

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New Paper Mache Book Is Finished!

May 15, 2010

As you may know, since last November I’ve been working very hard to create my new book, Make Animal Sculptures With Paper Mache Clay. Now, (finally!) it’s finished and it’s available on Amazon.com. You can see the cover image on the right, in the sidebar. The table of contents is below: You can search inside [...]

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Drying Paper Mache with Solar – Another Experiment

May 14, 2010

My latest chimpanzee bust is helping me with this experimental solar paper mache dryer. If you ever took a high school science class, you’ll recognize that this is not a very scientific experiment. But hey – it only cost me $4.95, and it was fun. It isn’t scientific because there are no controls, and, to [...]

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Paper Mache Trees – Handcrafted Wedding Decor

May 12, 2010

Today I’m going to let KT Scherer tell you about these fantastic paper mache trees she made for her wedding. She did an outstanding job, and I can see why her guests were so impressed. Here’s what she told me in her email: Hi Jonni, I emailed you about a year and a half ago. [...]

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Paper Mache Prom Decor with an Egyptian Theme

May 11, 2010

I’ve received some fantastic images this week from readers, and it’s been difficult to decide which artist’s work to post first. Tiffiny’s “life-sized” Egyptian sculptures were created for her daughter’s prom, but I sure hope they find a permanent home where they can be on display. Fantastic job. Here’s what Tiffiny said in her email [...]

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Chimpanzee Bust – A Paper Mache Clay Experiment

May 4, 2010

I seem to be in the mood for experiments this month. Most of my experiments have been out in the garden (no results to report yet), but yesterday it was cold and wet, so I decided to stay inside and do an experiment with paper mache clay. This experiment actually started a few weeks ago [...]

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