Folk Art Pig-Part 7-Tip of the Day-Photos

Last blog post I showed the creation of the head of the folk art pig.  I have added a couple of layers of paper mache since then.  Today's post shows the development of the lower jaw.

 The first photo shows the basket weave of the underside of the head.  All of the basket weave was covered with a couple of layers of paper mache.  The snout is still open at this point.
I needed the jaw to have a little depth so I folded pieces of corrugated cardboard to form rectangles to act as spacers.  I used a piece of recycled cardboard from a tissue box to form the shape of the jaw.  The cardboard rectangles  were taped to the underside of the tissue box.  Then the whole piece was taped to the underside of the jaw and covered with a liberal layer of tape.  Afterwards, this area was covered with paper mache also.

Tip of the Day:  Giving strength to paper mache.

Newsprint paper has a grain just as fabric and wood has a grain.  You can make your project stronger by alternating the direction of the papers as you lay them.  Lay the paper with the grain going in one one direction in one layer and the paper crosswise to it in the next layer.  This helps to prevent sagging or tearing and helps prevent damage from going too deeply once the layers are dry.