PAPER MACHE BLOG

Cute Little Paper Mache Dragon

2012-02-14T04:46:40Z

I just delivered one of the commissions I mentioned to a very nice couple, Kevin and Brenda. They seemed very pleased with it. They liked my little William dragon, the main character of my book, "William's Treasure." They'd seen William in a window display in downtown Seattle. Kevin did an extensive search to find me after the display was over. I think he finally Googled, "paper mache" and found me. I couldn't sell William since he is from my book. So I made him a little dragon with the same sort of attitude. I like the sitting pose, like a dog would sit. Just thought I'd show you what he looked like.

Thank you as always for looking.

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly- breast reduction

2012-02-09T22:28:49Z

Hi everyone. It's been a while. I mentioned earlier that I've taken a couple of commissions. I felt the need to get those underway before proceeding with my butterfly. I have finished the sculpting on this project and so it was a good place to take a break. Below are the final steps in the sculpting. Like I do with many of my paper mache projects, I wanted some horizontal breast plates. I started at the end of the bifurcated tail. I folded little pieces of cloth and laid them one over the other. I worked my way up the tail...

... up the stomach and over the entire torso. I ended under her chin.

So this is where I had a revelation.   She is supposed to be somewhat older, and craggy. Yet when I looked at her I realized that while her skin was older and wrinkled, her breasts looked like those of a 20 year old. I inadvertently constructed her like a high school boy would. So she needed a breast reduction.    I wrestled with whether I should show this or not.   In the end I decided that I wanted to show the entire process. I want people to see my equivocation.   I must say, cutting off her breasts was hard for me. I worked really hard on them. I think I spent two days making them.

So here is my breastless butterfly.

No paper mache here. I just used wadded paper and masking tape to reconstruct the breasts.   These are much more in line with what I wanted. They are smaller and it looks like she has some muscle.

I added new plates.    I know it doesn't look that different in this photo. But in person this change made a big difference.

Next time...Painting.   Thank you for stopping by!

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly- hands and feet

2012-01-19T18:40:16Z

Hi again. Yes it's been a while. I'm currently working on this project and two commissions. Had to do some work on the commissions before I could move on with my girl. Before I get to her hands and feet...I've had a few questions about the tentacle hair. Just want to show you what her head looked like as I planted her hair. I just cut a bunch of holes in her head. I squirted hot glue into the holes before pushing in the strands.

Now on to hands and feet. These were much harder to make than I thought they would be. The proportions had to be exactly right. First, I started by twisting paper around pieces of wire clothes hanger to make fingers and toes. Then I crumpled a small wad of paper and added a finger. I wrapped masking tape on either side.

I continued adding each finger until I got a full hand.

I added wads of paper to the thumb and other parts of the palm. I pretty much copied my own hand.   Then I hot glued some claw-like fingernails to the end of the fingers.

Now I know what you are thinking. I shouldn't have modeled her hands after mine. She's long and thin. My hands would look too wide.   And they did.   So I cut them off and made them thinner. I just cut out some slices between the fingers and squished the hand back together.   This is as close to surgery as you get in the paper mache world.    I made the feet the same way I made the hands. But this time I made the feet longer proportionally than my own.

Like with the hands, I added some flesh to the under side of the foot.   I put them on the butterfly and added some nice toenails.

Then I added my cloth mache and was finished with these appendages.

More to come soon. We are having one of the biggest snowstorms we've ever experienced in Seattle. I've been out of school almost a week. Unbelievable. What do they say? When buried in snow, do art. Thank you for stopping by!

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly- new face!

2011-12-28T07:02:51Z

I've done more work on her. I've finished her hands and feet. I have to say, that was not as easy as it should have been. I will put together a post about those soon. But first, I just wanted to show you her new face. She looks a lot better with skin and hair...well, it's not exactly hair. They are tentacle-like things. If you look at the photos below you can see that I twisted paper around pieces of wire tapering them at the end. Then I cloth mached them. That is, I wrapped strips of cloth dipped in Elmer's glue around each of them. I added some curves.

Then I poked holes in her head and stuck them in. Of course I also added cloth mache skin to the rest of her face as well.

I'm showing her skinless, hairless face one more time for contrast.

And here she is with skin and hair. I like her. Of course she looks better in person.
See you soon. Thanks for stopping by.

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly- Wings!

2011-12-12T17:14:45Z

Welcome back to my paper mache Dark Butterfly project.
As you can see below I attached her head.   I know, she still looks creepy. As I said earlier, this will change radically when she has lips and eyelids and hair (well, the equivalent of hair).   You'll notice I also added breasts.   Max was curious about these.   She will have scales when she's finished.    That will change how you perceive her anatomy. On the right you can see the beginnings of her wings.   You can also see her fingers and toes in the upper right hand corner of the photo.

Below you can see how I attached the framework for the wings.    I just punched holes in the paper mache back and stuck in the long, tapered spines (I'm not sure what you call these, they will be the substructure of the wings).   On the right she is ready to have the cloth draped over the spines. It's hard to see here, but I have strings connected to the ends of the spines. These are connected to the ceiling.   This is to support the weight of large pieces of cloth soaked with glue.

Here she is with the cloth draped over the spines.   I let this cloth dry over night.   On the right you'll see Eddie complaining. He wanted me to stop working on the butterfly and to give him food.

Here she is with her wings trimmed.

A little closer look at her upper body.

And, for what it's worth, here is what she looks like from the back. I added cloth mache to the backs of the spines.

Thanks again for stopping by. Happy Holidays to you all.

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly- arms, back, and head

2011-12-03T18:30:37Z

Hi all,
I've been working hard on this project.   Time to give you another peek.   As I mentioned earlier, after I put together the basic shape with paper mache balls, I sculpt various parts until I have what I want.   I wanted to augment her back. It has to be strong since she will have large wings to maneuver.    So I cut off a chunk of the paper mache ball and folded it over on one edge. I repositioned it on the back and taped it on.   Doing this on both sides gave her some nice lats, a nice V shape to her back.

If you look closely at the back of the arms you'll notice that I gave her some triceps. No paper mache shells here, just some wadded paper and tape.   On the front side I twisted a long piece of paper, wrapped it with tape, and added a rather long bicep.   The trick here is determine exactly what level of exactness (is that the right word?) to achieve on this body. I could go crazy here, like take a course on anatomy, but I don't have the time.   So I go with what "looks right".    Hope it does to you too.

Now it's time to be afraid.   I'm going to show you the current state of her face.   I put the jaws inside another, smaller paper mache ball.   I added some cheeks and cut holes for her eyes. Using very small pieces of paper mache shells (that were laying around) and masking tape I fashioned a nose.    I inserted some nice yellow, cat-like eyes and added some wadded paper above them to give her some brows.

I sculpted some ears with more small paper mache shell material. This is where her face stands right now. As I told you earlier, it's kind of scary looking. But remember, this is a face with no skin. Yours would look just as bad without skin (of course, judging by my 61 year old skin, some faces might look better without skin). I can see her face in my mind's eye with lids and lips. She will look very different at that point, trust me. I'll get there soon.

Next stop... wings! Working on those today. I'll get back to you soon. Thanks as always for taking an interest in my art work. Take care.

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly- begin assembly

2011-11-23T05:14:38Z

So I'm going to start putting her together. Now just between you and me, I have more of the face and head finished than I want to show you. I know that those photos should follow the last ones I posted of the jaws. But the face is just kind of disturbing. I'd rather wait. I'll come back to it later after the body takes shape.

I put together two of the paper mache balls. Remember, everything is really rough right now.   I'll sculpt all of this a lot more later.   Here are the two paper mache legs I made.

Below on the left you can see that I cut the knee and bent it.   For the dillionth time, I love wire clothes hangers inside my paper mache appendages.   They keep the knees in the position I want until I can fill them in.    On the right is the basic body with the two legs added.

She will be hanging on a wall and I want her to lean out a bit.   So I cut her in the back and bent her forward (on the left, below). I added arms, and although it's hard to see, I gave her a six pack belly. She is starting to take shape isn't she?

I cut another of the smaller paper mache balls into two pieces and pulled out the wad of paper in the middle.   I added these as cheeks and I also added her tail.

Here she is on her back.

More to come. I'm so excited to be working on this piece again. It's been a long time and I missed her.
Have a nice Thanksgiving out there.

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly- part 2

2011-11-13T01:55:08Z

See, how's this for quick. I realized that I haven't posted everything I've done on my paper mache Dark Butterfly.   I've made some jaws for her.

As usual, I cut open a paper mache ball. Then I made some teeth out of Fimo and hot glued them onto the shell. By the way, I have some possible great news on this front. I found a product being sold at this TAEA conference that may work better than polymer clay for teeth. I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll let you know what I think after I use it.

I made a tongue the usual way.    Here is what they look like together.   Don't worry, I'll cut away some of the paper mache shell on the bottom.   The lower jaw won't look like that.

Here they are after putting on the cloth mache.    And here they are after painting.

You know I love cats. This one is my neighbor's cat, Phil. This photo doesn't do him justice. He is enormous. He is super sweet. He lounges on my front lawn, rain or shine and welcomes me when I leave the house.
Thanks for checking in. More soon. I'm excited about this project.
Dan

Taking my Paper Mache to Texas- part 2

2011-11-13T00:31:14Z

Sorry I've been gone so long. As I mentioned, I was a keynote speaker at the Texas Art Education Association Convention in Galveston, Texas. It went very well. I had a very enthusiastic, happy, fun crowd to work with. Just great people. They laughed at all of my juvenile humor. As soon as they laughed at the paper mache piggie sniffing the paper mache birdie's butt, I knew I was in the right place. And the workshop went well despite some mix up regarding supplies. I just want to thank publicly the president of the TAEA, Cheryl Evans, and the president elect, Linda Fleetwood for inviting me, and Joey Doyle, and Drew and Mike, and Gary for all their help. There were others too, so many I can't name them all. It was a grand event. It was taped, and I've been told that the hour long speech will eventually end up on the association's website. I'll let you know if that happens.

I just hope that many of these art teachers will go back to their schools and do paper mache with their students. The kids need it. I see a paper mache resurgence.

But now I'm just itching to get back to work! I have my paper mache Dark Butterfly piece waiting for me. She's been patient, but every day that goes without working on her, the more I risk her wrath. I promise to post updates as soon as I get home.

A Paper Mache Dark Butterfly

2011-09-25T04:38:22Z

I only have time to give you a little bit of this new paper mache project of mine. I am making a sort of a lizard-like butterfly with the body of a woman and the face of a....well, not exactly sure how to describe the face yet. You'll just have to wait and see.

You know the drill by now. I crumpled balls into a torso (upper, right), hips (upper, middle), head (lower, middle), and a couple extras for who knows what. You know I like to have extra paper mache balls around so that I can add details to the project. As usual I used wire clothes hangers to put inside the legs, arms, and in this case the tail. (Did you know that lizard-like lady butterflies have tails? Well, they do.) Sorry, it's hard to see the white clothes hangers clearly.

Here are the crumpled paper arms and legs. I also twisted paper around the wire to make a long, sleek, bifurcated tail.

Here she is after I paper mached all of the parts.

Isn't she beautiful so far?

So why are people still making paper mache piggies? I don't get it.
Thank you for stopping by. See you soon.

Taking my Paper Mache to Texas

2011-09-25T03:53:14Z

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that. I've started a new project. I'll post my first entry about it very soon. But I thought I should mention that I'm going to Texas in November (the 9th -12th). I'll be one of the keynote speakers at the Texas Art Education Association Convention. I'll also be running a workshop. The conference will be in Galveston at the Moody Gardens Hotel. Click here if you want more information about this.

Between preparing for this conference, and the show I had with the Seattle Sculptor's Guild, and a commission I was finishing... oh, and school starting again, I just haven't had time to post. This has been bothersome because I have begun a really cool project, one I'm very excited about. I promise to at least put the rudimentary steps on this blog by the end of this weekend. Thank you for being so patient!

Paper Mache Buddha with Jo- Finished!

2011-08-21T22:04:59Z

It struck me last night as I was going to sleep, that I just needed to finish this project. So here it is! Once again, if you are interested in the paper mache instructions and commentary, read on.

Paper Mache Buddha with Jo

I promised in the last post to talk a bit about the cloth mache.   Usually when I make lips I fold a small strip of cloth and simply wrap it under the mouth for the bottom lip.   Then I do the same on the top. In this case I added a fold under the nose.   For the most part, that's enough for nice lips.   Of course a laughing Buddha should have lips that are a bit more plump, like Angelina Jolie. So I added a couple more small pieces of cloth around the folds.

I folded cloth again and made eye lids.    I wanted them to be crescent shaped. And I made a navel.   Just poked a hole in the belly and stuffed some cloth into it (just like I did with the nose and ears).

I painted him a pale orangish-pink.   He was very bright.   Then I blackwashed him.   It's funny, blackwashing is the step that most people who try my paper mache techniques resist. They fall in love with the first coat of paint and don't want to ruin it. I understand completely.   Look how awful this face looks right after the backwash.    But I'm telling you, you need the darkness to appreciate the light. (How's that for a nice Buddhist type saying! Actually, it was Bill Alexander, the crazy painter on PBS that used to say that, along with "Fire it in there!" when he was applying paint.)   You spend a lot of time on the details of a project and you want to see them. The blackwashing really pulls them out.

Notice how much better he looks once some of the color is added back. I put a small amount of paint on my brush and hit the high points on the head, the nose, ears, etc..   Note that I added a bit of pink to the lips and cheeks.    Of course the best part of doing my paper mache art projects is scraping the paint off the eyes.   It was no different with this piece.   Buddha came alive when the paint came off.   And, if I may brag a bit, I think he ended up looking very happy and wise, well, at least happy.   Then again, it might have just been the caffeine.   Did you notice that I pulled the arms and the cup up closer to his face? This Buddha was made for a coffee shop after all.    I wanted to associate the bliss with the cup of coffee.

I bought some nice cloth and made a robe.   Sorry, I didn't document the making of the robe.   Just got carried away and did it. Suffice it to say that it really isn't a robe.   I wouldn't have been able to put a real robe on the Buddha since you can't move the arms.   So the cloth is pieced together with hot glue to simulate a robe.

And what would one of my paper mache pieces be without a cat? So here's...

...Buddha with Jo and Max.

Thanks for hanging with me. I'll post a video of this build on Youtube very soon. I just need to do some editing. I've got another paper mache piece of art started in my studio. I'll post something about it soon. Take care.
Dan

Paper Mache Buddha with Jo- Working on the face

2011-08-04T18:14:04Z

Hi there. Back to the face. As you can see, I cut eye sockets into the paper mache head and filled them in with masking tape. At this point I got strange.   Instead of pretending that this project went straight forward with no twists and turns, I'm going to show you the machinations of a crazy artist.   I decided that he needed more flesh under the chin.   So I cut a slice out of a paper mache ball and used it for the jowls. Then I had to make the chin bigger (again, used the shell of another extra paper mache ball for this).     I wasn't sure at this point that I liked the face at all.   As an artist, you have to work until you like something. There is no objectivity to it.   It doesn't even matter whether the client likes it.    I've sold work under deadlines that weren't exactly what I wanted and it haunted me.   I wish I could buy back some of those pieces and use them for parts.   Oh well.

I thought that maybe I just needed a few more details so I added some eyes and cheeks (more paper mache shells).   In this case I added some masking tape eyelids and lips just to get a feel for the finished face.   When I looked at him, all of a sudden I recognized the face. It looked (to me) like the face of the snowman from the children's book "The Snowman" (the kids used to watch the movie of the same name when they were little.). I was mortified.    So I cut off the jowls that I added earlier.   And then I cut off the head. I wanted it lower on the body.   Funny thing, I liked the face more when it wasn't attached.   Go figure.

I needed some flashy (fleshy) ears. I cut a piece of paper mache shell into a rough ear shape and taped it to the head.    I wanted some really fleshy ear lobes.   Rather than try to paper mache some smaller, earlobe balls I just crumpled up some phone book paper.

I fashioned long, droopy ear lobes.    I was ready to cloth mache the face and upper torso so I removed the masking tape eyelids and lips.   At this point it didn't look very Buddha-like.   In fact, he looked terrified.   I told him not to worry, that too much caffeine will do that to you.

I will show you some of the cloth mache steps in the next post. But I didn't want to leave you with that scary face. So below is the Buddha after I put on the cloth mache skin. He looks a lot better.

See you soon.

Paper Mache Buddha with Jo- Belly and Jaws

2011-07-21T19:04:47Z

Yeh, yeh, it's been a while.   Been working on my paper mache, and my house.   (I have a really great project in the works.) So I left off with the Buddha holding the cup. I took the cup out for a while. I'm going to work on other parts and then come back. I want the cup to be closer to his face. There has to be a connection between the joyful expression on the Buddha's face and the cup of coffee. This is for a coffee shop after all.

I taped on a paper mache ball for the head. This is the approximate size. I'll make many adjustments.   Speaking of adjustments, when I got the head on him, I realized that the belly was not big enough (for a proper "Laughing Buddha"). At this point I didn't have time to make another giant paper mache ball for another belly.    I thought of a rather clever way to remedy this situation (if I may say so myself). First, I cut the Buddha in half just above the belly.

Then, when I set the top half of the body back on, I set it back about 6 inches. It's hard but you can see this in this photo (below, on the left). I then cut up smaller, extra, paper mache balls to create the round upper portion of the belly. I used some of the same paper mache shells to make a smooth transition from the back to the butt (yes, Buddhas have butts).

Time to make the jaws. Since this Buddha will be smiling, I wasn't sure how many teeth would be showing. So I made a proper set of teeth just in case.   As usual, I cut open a smaller paper mache ball and used the half shells for the jaws. I hot glued the teeth onto the shells first.   Then I wrapped the teeth with my cloth mache.

I painted the jaws a pretty pink and blackwashed them.   I forgot to mention that I also made a tongue. I did this when I made the fingers and toes since a tongue is just two fingers put together with cloth over them both. I cut a hole in the head.

I pushed the jaws into the face. Note that I also added Buddha breasts (yes, Buddhas have breasts). Once again, I just cut a small paper mache ball in half and used the shells for those.

Have to stop here. Will be back soon. Thanks for stopping by.
As an aside, I wonder which is worse, the heat wave across 95% of the US, or the pouring rain in Seattle in the middle of July? Not much of a summer here.

Paper Mache Buddha with Jo- More Feet, hands, & legs

2011-07-02T02:45:51Z

I'm sure you looked at the title of this post and thought, isn't there something on TV? (The answer is yes, but it isn't worth watching.)(except "Deadliest Catch")(Strange as is sounds, it's the only show I actually watch.)
But there is just more work that needs to be done on these body parts.

But first, the answer to the math question I posed last time.   Believe it or not, you could raise the rope over 8 feet in the air!   You could easily walk under the rope, with someone on your shoulders (a short person). This would also be true if the question had been about wrapping a grapefruit instead of the Earth.    The answer would still be 50 divided by pi, no matter what are were wrapping.   Math is cool. Isaac got the answer first. I sent him a little prize.

Okay, back to paper mache. As happens many times, I make some appendages, put them on, and then hate them. I miscalculated on the legs.   They were too small.   Even though most of the legs will be under a robe, I couldn't stand knowing that the proportion of the legs was off.    So I cut open one of the extra paper mache balls I talked about last time, and put half of the paper mache shell on each thigh to make them bigger.   I didn't show it, but I ended up doing the same thing on both calves.   That's why you make a bunch of extra paper mache balls! For thigh and calf emergencies!

Now that he had feet and legs, it was time to make some toenails (and fingernails and teeth). Again, I used Fimo to make these.    Did I mention that Fimo degrades over time? After a few years they tend to break easily. This bothers me a lot.    I'm looking for better material.   Any suggestions?   I hot glued the toenails onto each foot.

I decided to do some cloth mache on the bottom half of the Buddha.   I start be wrapping each toenail with a piece of cloth dipped in Elmer's glue.   Then I added various sized pieces of cloth to cover the entire foot. Then I cloth mached the legs and the rest of the lower half of the body.    I realize that I may be getting a bit too granular in my entries. You've seen this process many times by now.

While the lower half of the Buddha was drying, I made his hands. Again, I modeled them after my own hands. They are a tiny bit bigger.

I put the hands onto the arms and then attached them to the body.   I used another paper mache ball (cut into two shells) to make some shoulders.   Since he is a coffee drinking Buddha (hence, the Jo in the title), I put the cup in his hands for the first time.

There are lots of adjustments to make. Getting the hands just right around that little cup took some time.

This is it until next time. My wife asked me if I'd give up two weeks of my summer (from making art) to do a few house projects. Of course I said I would. She started a list. The first thing on the list was "paint the interior of the house (yes, the entire house)." It goes from there. Just thought I'd let you know. I've finished that task. Mu studio looks like a bomb hit it. I have a great idea for my next project. I'll tell you about it sometime.

Stop by again. Take care

Paper Mache Buddha with Jo- Feet, hands, legs

2011-06-16T04:01:16Z

Sorry once again.   My life is always very busy.   I've started this post ten times. School is out now. I hope to have more time soon for my paper mache this summer. And I'm trying to do another paper mache pig on the side (of the human variety). I've been terribly remiss in accomplishing my goal of one pig per month.

So this is all looking very familiar. No surprises in my paper mache world.   Still, here goes.   I did my usual twisting of paper around pieces of wire clothes hanger for the toes and fingers.   As I've said before, I like to use phone book paper for this. It has a nice way of compressing.   I swear, this is the last possible use for phone books.    I've tried doing the paper mache with phone book paper. It didn't really work. It seemed like it didn't shrink uniformly.   This could be my imagination. Let me know if you've used this paper for paper mache.    I'm curious about how it went for others.    I used phone book paper on the eggs I made for the last baby dragon. While they were wet they were perfectly symmetrical and egg like. However, when they dried, they became all misshapen. So, as far as phone books go, paper mache no, fingers and toes, go (for it)(I know, that's really silly).   (With all the problems in the world, isn't it nice to have such a simple one to solve?) (Speaking of simple problems, see the end of this post.)

So below are the fingers and toes.   As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted this laughing Buddha to be essentially full sized.   So I used my own hands and feet as a guide.   I made the wads of paper about the size of my own foot.

As you can see, once I added the toes, the foot got a little bigger.     That's okay though. My feet are a little small.   Besides, the belly will certainly be bigger than mine.     In the photo on the right (below) I've assembled the parts for the calves and thighs.    I usually make legs by making a figure eight out of a clothes hanger. I put wads of paper in the upper and lower halves of the figure eight and paper mache. Obviously, this wouldn't work for my Buddha.   The legs would be way too small. For this project I just stuck thigh and calf sized wads of paper into their own hangers and then applied the paper mache.     I'm going to say this again.   I love wire clothes hangers.     I know many of you like different kinds of wire.    That's okay.   Some of you tell me you can't find wire clothes hangers any more.    But you can if you look online.        I was worried about it a while back, so I went on a wire clothes hanger buying spree. By the time I was finished, I had 1200 of them.   My wife thought I was nuts. (She's right. But not because of the clothes hangers.)   Hmmm. It occurs to me that people started saying they couldn't find hangers about the time I was buying these....sorry.     Look, if you really some and can't find them, let me know. I'll send you some for the price of shipping.

Speaking of hangers, I cut off the end of the loop and stuck the wire into the foot. I filled in the back of ankle with crumpled newspaper.

I wadded up a ball and wrapped it with tape.   I used this for the ankle.    I cut an extra, small paper mache ball in half to use for the calf muscle.   The mache ball was elongated, perfect for this application.    I like having a lot of extra paper mache balls around.     I have a big pile of them. If you are obsessive and have nothing elso to do, you can take the virtual tour of my studio and see the pile of pre-paper mached balls. You can do this on the home page of GourmetPaperMache. Some of these paper mache balls are years old before I decide to use them.

I stuck the lower half of the leg and the thigh together.   Then I added another piece of wadded paper for a knee cap.   The assembled leg looked pretty good at this point I think.

I made the hands in a similar fashion. I started with a hand sized wad of paper. I added the four fingers on top.    I always put the thumb almost on the other side of the wad.   It looks much more like a thumb that way.   Again, I used my own hand as a reference for size.

I cut two holes in the sides of the giant paper mache Buddha body for the legs. I pushed the legs into the holes and added a lot of masking tape.    I'll tell you a little secret here. This was not as easy as it sounds. I had a terrible time getting these legs positioned correctly.     But, in the end, they turned out all right.    It's a lesson in life. Sometimes you just have to wrestle with the Buddha.

Till next time....meanwhile...

You probably know that I'm a math teacher during the school year.   As a little side note, I'm going to pose a little math problem. This has absolutely nothing to do with paper mache. But it is fun.     You don't have to work on it.   You can just wait for the answer on my next post.   Trust me. It will surprise you.   Here's the question:

Say you wrap a piece of rope around the Earth at the equator. The rope is very tight. It doesn't stretch.   So you have a length of rope that is essentially the circumference of the planet which happens to be 25,000 miles (it's actually 24,901.55 miles, but just use 25 thousand). The question is, if you added 50 feet of length to the rope, would it give you enough slack for you to stick your fingers underneath it? That is, would the additional 50 feet be enough for you to get your fingers under that giant piece of rope? Or would it still be too tight?

Answer next time (unless you want to post it.)
PS. No, this isn't some silly trick to get you to come back.   You don't have to come back if you don't want to.   This is just for fun.   And this is the last math problem I'll pose on this blog, I promise.

Paper Mache Buddha...with Jo

2011-06-02T03:46:07Z

Hi again,
So I'm going to admit up front that I've already finished this project. I've actually mentioned it in other posts. But I want to show the steps of the build for those of you who enjoy watching these projects being made, and for people who are first learning about paper mache. I was commissioned by a very nice person named Steve, owner of the Starling Coffee Company, to make a laughing Buddha for his shop.

I'm starting with a photo of my pal Eddie. Here he is, looking a little concerned. I think he's worried that the previoius pope, John Paul, might not get the second miracle he needs to become a saint. (It's hard to do miracles after you are dead.)

As always with my paper mache projects, I started with a pile of crumpled balls of newspaper. I wanted the Buddha to be full size, at least as big as I am. So I needed quite a few of these.

I put them all together with masking tape. Here is the body from the front and the side. As you can see, I used a lot of masking tape to hold all of this together. The masking tape also keeps the paper mache paste from soaking too deeply into the giant wad of paper.


I also made separate balls to use for the head and for sculpting various other parts.   I made the basic thighs and calves and upper arms and forearms. I put those inside wire clothes hangers.    On the right are all of these pieces drying after I added the paper mache. It took about a week for this mass of paper mache to dry.

Okay, this last photo has nothing to do with paper mache. It is a photo of sunset ON MARS! It was taken by one of the rovers.   Isn't it amazing what humans can do?

By the way, if you live in the Seattle area, and you can't stand waiting for me to show you the finished product, then go have a cup of coffee at Starlings. It's in Lynnwood at 16108 Ash Way, just off the 164th exit of I-5.

See you soon with the next installment.

Dan

New Paper Mache Dragon-the video

2011-06-01T04:02:58Z

I'm going to blather a bit.   For you non-readers out there, just go to my site and watch the new video.    Just follow the link below.    For those of you with nothing better to do, read on.

I've become rather compulsive in my old age.   Okay, so I've always been compulsive. But now I'm blindingly so.    Making these time-lapse videos have become a necessity for me.    I can't seem to start a new project until I've put one of these together.    It's strange.    I don't even enjoy it all that much. I sit in front of a computer for two or three weeks trying to edit hours of video.   And I do mean hours.   Peter Jackson has nothing on me.   I end up making hundreds of cuts trying to patch together video that is, most of the time, poorly shot.    And I have this unreasonable need to get the video down to three minutes or less.   Many of my cuts are one-tenth of a second long. To make matters worse, when I'm working on a project, I often forget that the camera is rolling.    It's often parked above my work table.    Twice during this dragon build I happily finished what I was doing on the dragon, cleaned up and went to bed, only to remember the next day, while I'm at my teaching job, that I left the camera running.   For technical reasons I have to reformat my video. It took several hours just to reformat two 18 hour video segments.    I ended up using 9 seconds total footage from both of those videos.    Even when I do know the camera is running, I simply get engrossed in what I'm doing and wreck the shot. I intended to show more of the blackwash stage of this build. It always looks good on video.    This time I blackwashed the entire front of the dragon standing directly between the dragon and the camera. No amount of editing can fix 2 hours of video that just shows my back. Without repainting the entire dragon, it can't be fixed. Lastly, I want to say that, as I've gotten older, I've gotten more vain. The more I video myself, the more shocked I am about what I see. For example, to my horror, I notice that I grimace 90% of the time while I work. Now, no offense to my dear deceased mother, but my mother used to do that. Us kids made fun of her for it. Now I do it. In fact, at times, I look like her in the video!    So I have to cut out any scene where I look like my mother, grimacing.   I left the camera going while I took one of my many cookie breaks. The camera caught some of it. See if you can see it in the video. Okay, so they aren't actually cookies. They are "Nilla Wafers." They call them that because there is no actual vanilla in them.   But they are great with milk. I eat them whenever I have something I have to do, or not. In fact, I'm going to have a little pile of Nillas as soon as I publish this entry.

Does anyone care about all this?   No.   But there it is anyway. I just want you to appreciate the video.
So press "video" below to get to the video. It's on my site. It's under the photo of the dragon.    Make sure you chose the full screen option. You can see the high definition that way.

Oh, by the way, the best part of the video is when I'm trimming the spine webbing.   It just fits the cadence of the music perfectly.   The music is a bit peppy, but the cadence is perfect.   Also, I swear I can hear voices humming during parts of this music.   My friend Willow thinks it's in my head.   Tell me if you can hear it too.

Thank you for stopping by.   I'm starting a new project on this blog.   No dragon this time.   First post will be tomorrow. I promise.
Dan

Click here to go to video.

New Paper Mache Dragon- Finished!

2011-05-03T03:27:00Z

Okay, if I wait until I have the perfect photos this dragon will never get shown. So I'm going to force myself to stop taking photos and show you what I have. I think these photos are all right, but as any self-respecting artist will tell you, photos simply don't capture the subtlety in the color. Trust me, this dragon is really beautiful in person. Since the nest is made of driftwood this dragon would live by the sea. So I wanted her to be sea greens and blues. Here she is.

Yes, here is my cheesy Photoshop effort to create her spot by the water.

I made the first post about this dragon on January 29. This took some time and effort, no doubt about it. For those of you who followed the build, thanks for being patient.

Next up, I'll show you how to build a laughing buddha.
Dan

New Paper Mache Baby Dragon

2011-04-29T13:35:00Z

Hello,
Well, I've actually finished this dragon. I really wrestled with the paint job. More about that on the next post. That's when I'll do the final "reveal." I just haven't had the time to take the final photos. I've decided to do this one post on the baby dragon in the nest. Again, in case you just want to see the baby and run, here it is, in the egg, with Eddy guarding.

Note the little bear next to the jar. That is Eddy's favorite toy. It's become just a blob over the years. He brings it to me as an offering. He drops it in front of me when I'm working. It's his way of saying, "pay attention to me!."

So, in case you've ever wondered, which came first, the baby paper mache dragon or the paper mache egg...
it was the egg.

I used Jonni's "paper clay" to make the shell of the eggs. That stuff is great.   I just made some paper balls and put the paper clay on the outside. I wasn't sure what size of egg I wanted, so I made a bunch, as you can see.


Once they were dry I sanded them. I didn't care if they were perfectly smooth. After all, they are dragon eggs. Then I cut one open with my utility knife and pulled out the paper wad.

As you can see below, I just started with a few odds and ends of paper mache balls I had laying around. I didn't do any kind of formal paper mache on the little dragon.   I just sculpted with small pieces of paper mache and masking tape.


I hot glued on some eyes and teeth. I wrapped masking tape around wire to make the "fingers" of the little dragon wings.

I tried to add analogous features to the big dragon, like the spikes down the spine. Of course they would be the baby versions of the mom dragon.    I didn't take any photos of the cloth mache process.   Suffice it to say that it took time and patience. Working small is harder than working large in many ways.   Many times people will write to me wanting me to make them a "small" dragon.   I've learned over the years that a request like that really means, "Make me something inexpensive."   The truth is, in many cases, it takes me longer to make something small than it does to make something large.    Still, I enjoyed making this little guy.

Here he is in the nest, waiting to be fed.

And here he is with mother.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll take some photos this weekend of the finished piece.