26 Thursday Sep 2019
Posted in Creepy Creatures, Halloween, Paper Mache'
Halloween started in July for me when I was asked to make some paper mâché items for the AZ Haunters’ Swap Meet in September. This post will be more photo intensive than instructional since I did not have the time to take a lot of progression images. I was asked to make a few pumpkins, but also wanted to stretch my abilities and see if I could also do some zombie-like hands. Continue reading
18 Thursday Jul 2019
Posted in Dragons, Paper Mache'
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In early December 2018, I came across some videos on YouTube showing you how to make cheap silicone molds. Mostly people used these molds with polymer clay. I had no idea if these would work with paper clay. I had the idea of making a three-headed wyvern and needed all the heads to at least appear similar. I didn’t think I was going to be able to do that with my limited sculpting skills. First thing I needed to do was sculpt one head out of Super Sculpey clay for something to press into the mold. I tried to just make the head as simple as I could because I didn’t know how well it would pull from the mold. Once the molds were ready, I pressed the paper clay into the molds. I tried to keep the clay about 1/8 inch thick so it would dry easier. It still took a long time to dry so I wound up pulling them before they were completely dry. Since this was the first time I had used molds, I didn’t realize how much shrinkage the head would have. Continue reading
17 Wednesday Jul 2019
Posted in Dragons
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When I started my first paper mâché dragon (Maleficent), I wanted to make wings that had a transparent effect. I just so happened to have some sheer scarves in my stash of scrap fabric so I thought I would try it. Continue reading
29 Monday Oct 2018
Posted in Creepy Creatures, Halloween, Paper Mache'
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Hey everyone! Sorry I have been gone for so long! Seems like life just got in the way this year so I have only managed to get one project done so far. Continue reading
30 Monday Oct 2017
Posted in Creepy Creatures, Halloween
Whipping out the paper mâché pumpkin on these projects is a snap compared to the critter that goes with it. Guess I’ll start this post with the pumpkin since he took the least amount of time. Continue reading
25 Monday Sep 2017
Posted in Creepy Creatures, Halloween
Tags
Creepy Creatures, Halloween, Jack-O-Lantern, Paper Mache', Pumpkin, Ultimate Paper Mache', Unhinged Productions
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays so after many years of thinking about this, I decided to embark on my first Halloween project! Before I get started with this tutorial, I want to give credit to Unhinged Productions and Ultimate Paper Mâché for their fantastic instructions and paper clay recipes. Thanks so much! You both are wonderful teachers! Continue reading
06 Wednesday Sep 2017
Posted in Dragons, Paper Mache'
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WINGS!!!!! I thought I would never get here! This dragon hasn’t taken me as long as others, but there just seemed to be so many little things that needed to get taken care of before I ever got to the wings. I started them like all the other ones that I have done, but decided to see if I could build them up with the smooth clay. So here is how they began…
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05 Tuesday Sep 2017
Posted in Dragons, Paper Mache'
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An idea popped into my head a few months ago about doing a dragon holding some butterflies. Right after I started this project, I started seeing signs of butterflies everywhere. Spiritually, personally and as a society, we are going through many transformations right now. This is the message of butterflies, so it was interesting that the universe wanted me to add these little creatures to one of my dragons.
It took some thinking for how I was going to accomplish this so I started researching images of various butterflies on the internet. These were the three I came up with:
03 Sunday Sep 2017
Posted in Dragons, Paper Mache'
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I was really having a difficult time trying to decide what color to paint this dragon. I liked this green color a lot, but I knew it needed to be toned down. His eyes were red and green so I wanted to stay somewhere in that color scheme without him looking too ‘Christmassy’. Continue reading
01 Friday Sep 2017
Posted in Dragons, Paper Mache'
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I decided to try some new methods with this dragon. Instead of doing flour and water paper mâché balls to form the dragon, I wanted to make a basic body shape cut from foam core. I built up the figure with wads of paper or foil to get my desired shape and then used two different types of paper clay to fill out the features. Here are the beginnings of the arms and legs showing the process of adding the rough paper clay. Clay needed to be added a little at a time and allowed to dry otherwise the clay would fall off.
