I know it’s April. But I finally finished the February project. February’s category was something tactile. So I decided upon paper mache. There is a local artist who makes metal dog sculptures. I’ve always loved them, but they are out of my price range. So why not make something out of paper mache.
First, I looked for a silhouette of a Brittany Spaniel. I then enlarged it to the size I wanted. Next, was tracing it on cardboard from a cereal box. I cut out two, one in reverse. I first tried to make a 1 inch wide strip for the edge. That did not work. The legs were too narrow to curve the edging around. So I settled for making blocks out of corrugated cardboard. I wanted to make the sculpture 1 inch thick. I set it to dry overnight.
Now the fun part. This got a little messy. I layered on newspaper using a mixture of white glue and water for the paste. I used 3 layers, with each layer needing to dry overnight. I even left my sculpture on a radiator overnight to dry. It gets a bit wet and sloppy so I used a cutting mat on my table for easy cleanup.
Once I had all the layers on and dry, I needed to paint. Living in New England, the weather forced a delay in painting as I wanted to paint it outside. It needs to be a bit warmer than New England in February to spray paint. I decided upon the Rustoleum Hammered Bronze Paint. My husband is very good with spray paint. He put the primer on for me. Then I put on the Hammered finish. It doesn’t look very hammered. There is a fine line when using the hammered finish. You need to put it on heavy enough to allow some of the paint to sink. But not so heavy that is runs. I didn’t get it heavy enough. I will try another coat. But for now, I like it.
The sculpture as a whole is a bit uneven. But it does stand on its own. If I ever do it again I will make the corrugated cardboard layers throughout the entire form. That way there will be more stability to the end product.
My sculpture sits on the edge of my stair case. Next I want to make a letter H for my wall. My niece wants to make her first initial. Just need to decide on a font.
What do you think? Have you ever tried paper mache?
C