Folk Art Pig-Part 8-Photos

The armature of the folk art pig is almost finished.  I still have to add the legs, but I wanted to do a little of the detail of the head before I added them.  Today I added a cranial cap to the pig's head to improve the shape of the head.  I used pieces of a tissue box to make the strips rather than using more poster board.  The strips I needed were fairly short and the tissue box was just about the right size.  I like to use recycled materials in a project when I can.  Poster board is not very expensive, but every little bit of savings helps.

The strips are covered with masking tape to help waterproof them before being covered with paper mache.  The poster board had a glossy coating on both sides.  The tissue box cardboard was only glossy on one side.  I figured a little extra protection would not hurt.  The strips were woven together with the basket weave pattern that I have used throughout the project.  Then another layer of masking tape was added on top to help the cap keep it's shape.  The cap was then covered with a couple layers of paper mache.

I was getting ready to start working on the snout, when one of those "What if?" questions set in.  At this point the torso of the folk art pig is sealed with several layers of poster board and paper mache.  I started thinking about the folk art pig being a burner project.  What if some of ignition point of some of the materials is lower than others?  What if the sealed torso of the pig starts filling up with smoke from smoldering materials and becomes pressurized.  What if it explodes?  It really is not my intention to shower the people at the burn with flaming bits of pig.  So before I sealed the snout, I used a long knitting needle to reach through the head and poke several holes in the sealed compartment of the torso.  Any smoke or gasses building up would vent out through
 the nose of the pig.

Maybe that sounds a little paranoid, so I will add something in my defense here.  I have seen char cloth made.  Char cloth was used as tender for starting fires in earlier times.  To make char cloth cotton cloth is places in a can and sealed.  Holes are poked in the can to allow the gasses to vent.  The can is placed in a fire.  The cotton in the can is heated and smoke comes jetting out of the vents in the can.  Eventually the smoke subsides and it is time to remove the can from the fire.  The cotton cloth has turned to charcoal.  It is a very thin piece and dry.  Kept in a dry place it can be used to start a fire with the faintest spark from a flint and steel.  You would be amazed at how much smoke was out gassed from even a relatively small piece of cloth.

Anyway, once the front plate for the nose was taped on, I drew nostrils and cut them out.   The photo above shows the snout with one nostril cut out and one nostril not cut yet.    Then all of that was covered with more layers of paper mache.

The added layers of paper mache ended up making the lower jaw a bit too squarish.  My next blog will show how I corrected that section of the jaw.