Paper Mache Clay

JonniClay v. 2.0 – Tell Me If It’s an Improvement or Not

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Share  I do hope you’ll experiment with these two new slightly-altered paper mache clay recipes if you have access to a few cups of powdered ceramic clay. The clay I used was ordered from Georgies in Portland. It’s their Wonder White clay. I think any ceramic clay without grog would work the same way. (You [...]

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Paper Mache Clay Video – the Sequel…

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Share  Since we’re getting very close to the day when we can add paper mache to our paper mache cat, I thought this would be a good time to do another video about the paper mache clay recipe. There are some very common questions about the clay, and I hope that this video will answer [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson #4 – Sculpting the Face

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Share  My cat is getting much closer to the day when I can start adding the paper mache. I really did think I could add the ears, toes and tail in this lesson, in addition to filling out the face, but the video would have taken way too long. Besides, it took me a long [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson #3 – Padding the Armature

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Share  Today we start filling out the padding on our paper mache cat. This portion took quite a long time, so I’ll wait and do the head and toes on the next video. As you’ll see in the video, I made a little clay model to make it easier for me to see where all [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson #2 – Making the Armature

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Share  This video is a little long, but I wanted you all to have plenty to do until the next one comes out. Please let me know if you have any questions. If you’ve read my book Make Animal Sculptures With Paper Mache Clay, you’ll notice right away that I didn’t cut the foam blocks [...]

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How to Make a Paper Mache Cat, Lesson #1 – Making the Pattern

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Share  A few days ago I asked if anyone would like me to put together a series of lessons, a “class,” if you will, on how to make a paper mache cat. The response was pretty overwhelming. In fact, there are now over 70 comments on that post, more than I’ve ever received so quickly. [...]

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Nikki’s Armature Video – Must Watch

ShareThis is great – Nikki made us a video to show how she builds hollow armatures for her cement sculptures. As she says in the video, these techniques will work just as well for traditional paper mache strips and paste, and, even better, the paper mache clay. Thank you, Nikki!

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Make a Joker Mask with Paper Mache Clay

ShareI confess. I haven’t seen the movie. I specifically chose not to see it because of all the photos of Heath in his Joker makeup, and it just looked too creepy. I don’t watch creepy movies. But this morning I saw an ad for a Joker mask, and something just came over me – I [...]

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Pepakura + Paper Mache Clay

Share In my last post I included several photos that showed sculptures made with a paper mache clay skin over an armature created by a computer design program called Pepakura. I mentioned in the post that I would love to know more. Simon, the creator of the sculptures, was kind enough to write a very [...]

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Baby Chick Made With Paper Mache Clay

ShareI started this project to test a modification to the paper mache clay recipe that was suggested by Ginny in a comment on our paper mache clay page. Her idea of substituting glycerin for the linseed oil in the recipe started a lot of activity in the comments section, so I just had to do [...]

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Progress Report – Molds and Paper Mache Clay

Share I’ve been working like crazy all week, but I don’t have much progress to show for it. I’m still trying to find a formula for the paper mache clay that will work well in a rubber mold. So far I’ve completed one black-footed ferret, with a plaque based on an ancient petroglyph at Wyoming’s [...]

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Painting the Tortoise

ShareThe 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

ShareThe 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

ShareToday 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

ShareRecently 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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