Folk Art Pig-Part 10-Photos

I'm now at the point of adding legs to my folk art pig.  I experimented with a couple of variations in height and how I wanted to attach the legs before I actually attached them.  As I've said before, art is about problem solving.  The basket armature that forms the torso of the pig had somewhat flattened across the front, but the rest of it is rounded.  The shape did not lend itself to sitting still on something while I attached the legs as had been my original plan.  I also ran into a couple of unanticipated problems. So, on to Plan B, which did work well enough that I was able to get the legs attached.  (Remember, this is a burner project and no nails, screws, or wire are involved.)

Before anything else, I had to determine the length of the legs.  I accomplished this by stacking books underneath the armature and bracing it until I had a height that looked right.  After that I marked the placement of the legs and the line that represented the level line for the dowels that would be the supports that would hold up the pig.  Then I cut the 1 & 1/2 inch wide dowel into four pieces of equal length.  I had originally planned to use cyanoacrylate ester glue to hold the dowels in place then build the area up with tape.  Perhaps my glue was old, or perhaps there just was not enough contact between the side of the armature and the dowel, but the dowels just would not stick. That is when I switched to Plan B, which was pretty aggravating but did get the job done.

Plan B:  I flipped the armature upside down.  Using my marks as guides, I placed the dowels and used a carpenter's level to make sure each leg was plumb and level to each other.  As each leg was leveled, I taped it up with lots of masking tape.  After each strip of tape I used the level again to check to make sure the leg had stayed in place.  Let's just say that patience was a virtue here.   Eventually, I had all the legs straight and mounted where I wanted them. Once everything was in place the legs were covered with three layers of paper mache.  I allowed each layer to dry before adding another layer.

Once all the layers were dry, I flipped the armature right side up again.  Unfortunately, one of the legs had sagged under the weight of the paper mache.  Well, I tried to look at it that three out of four correctly wasn't so bad after all.  At least I could make the correction with the pig standing firmly on three level legs. 

I used a craft knife to cut through the paper mache and tape on the short leg.  I cut away the excess tape and paper mache from the dowel and re-taped the leg on to the armature.  It was much easier to do with it upright.  Once it was sufficiently taped, I put on three layers of paper mache, allowing it to dry between layers. 

There were other options for dealing with the problem of the short leg.  I could have dealt with it by cutting off another piece of dowel and gluing it to the bottom.  That option might have actually been quicker but it involved getting the saw set up and cutting something withing a 1/32 of an inch to keep it from destabilizing the otherwise stable armature.  Or I could have just waited and used paper mache to add some material when I was working on the feet.  However, the legs are bearing the weight of the entire armature.  I did not want to put additional strain on the rest of the legs.  Fixing the armature at the point of the problem seemed best.  If I were creating this project as something permanent I would want it to be done properly.  In the end, the pig is standing on all four legs.

Next blog:  Building up the musculature.