Folk Art Pig - Armature Part 4-Photos

In my last blog post I left off with showing a side view of the basket armature for the body of my folk art pig. Today's first photo is a picture of the end of the basket which has been woven and taped.  I did not need a lot of strength in this section of the armature so only some of the strips were woven.  The rest were taped with masking tape.


The ribs were a little more flexible than I would have liked.  The weight of the poster board strips was causing the ribs to flatten a little more than I had expected.  I decided to add some internal supports as well.  Ordinarily I would have used pieces of dowel or some sticks left over from my walking stick projects.  (See my previous posts on making walking sticks.)  However, we were still without power due to the storm.  I could have sawed the dowel by hand, but it was 103 degrees Fahrenheit outside.  So I decided to use what I had on hand in the studio.  I taped together some craft sticks left over from a project.  It doesn't look very neat but it gets the job done.  If you have every jury rigged something from bits and parts and finally proclaimed "There, I've fixed it!" you will know what I mean.  (If you have time and want to see some amusing do-it-yourself repairs visit http://thereifixedit.failblog.org/ )  The supports worked fine.  They really only need to last until I have enough layers of paper mache that the structure becomes rigid.  Ultimately, I  added cross bracing to the first two ribs to make sure I had enough support for the head.  I did not get a picture of the cross braces.

I covered the basket with two layers of newsprint using only PVA white glue in order to ensure that the armature was waterproof enough to withstand the layers of flour paste.  The poster board I used to make the armature has a slight sheen to it, but given the amount of moisture in the flour paste I did not think it would hold up well without further protection. Later layers would be flour paste with small amounts of glue added.  With each successive layer I am reducing the glue until I am working with straight flour paste.

The glue works as a hardener for the flour paste but it has some drawbacks as well.  For one thing, masking tape does not adhere well the glue/paste mixture.  It is like trying to stick tape on Teflon!  I have more taping to do on this project so I need to have a surface that the tape will stick to without a lot of trouble.  When it comes to painting, acrylic gesso will stick to the glue/paste mixture but home made gesso will not.  I am planning to use acrylic gesso, but why cause myself potential headaches by using glue/flour paste all the way through.  Another consideration is that using glue can also make the piece harder to sand.


The squarish block on top of the armature is the support for the head.  It is made of stacked pieces of cardboard covered with masking tape.  I will have more pictures of this support and the building of the head in my next blog post.