Large Doll - Part 3

Last blog post I showed where I had covered a Styrofoam head with strip paper mache' and removed the head from the mold.  It took cutting the papier mache' head into three pieces in order to remove it from the foam head.  The first cut was along each side of the neck and over the top of the head.  The second cut was along the jaw line.  Perhaps I should have cut the head along the center line of the back of the head and the face.  I might have been able to pull it apart in two pieces that way.  However, I chose the other way because the seams on the Styrofoam head ran side to side.  Also, when you cut paper mache' and put it back together, generally a little ridge is formed.  That could have been dealt with.  However, I did what I did because it seemed to be the thing to do at the time.  Perhaps in a future project I will try slicing the head in the other direction.

Today I will be blogging about getting the head back together.  It was not as easy as one would think.  It took a lot of patience.  It also too a few tries to get things to come together properly. 

I began by taping the jaw back to the upper portion of the head.  The most important part of getting the head back together were the registration marks I made on the head before I cut it apart.  By aligning the marks it was easy to see how things joined up.  Rejoining the pieces was not simple.  When you cut strip paper mache' the edges will fan out slightly along both sides of the cut line.  This creates a little bit of a ridge.  Things do not want to go back together in a straight line.

Trying to get masking tape to adhere to paper mache' is not easy.  Masking tape does not easily stick to the dried flour paste.  The edges of the tape want to curl up.  It would have been a great time to use some of the cyanoacrylate glue that bonds in 15 second.  However, I did not have any and was not inclined to go out in frigid weather to purchase some.  I tried using some multipurpose glue, but it was moist enough that it was making the mask pieces mushy on the edges.  I toiled on with the masking tape.  Eventually, I prevailed and the top and bottom pieces of the face were back together.  After that, the area was covered with a layer of paper mache' to add some strength.

Even with four layers of strip paper mache' the doll head was not exactly rigid.  Some areas bowed inward slightly and some outward.  It was not just a matter of placing the two pieces next to each other and moving on.  I started by taping a few inches at the bottom of the neck on both sides; making sure that those registration marks lined up. 

Next I taped the top center marks of the head.  This was the hard part.  One section of the head bowed down.  Trying to hold the head together, force the bowed piece up, and tape it all at once was a real challenge.  Fortunately, the doll head is large enough that I was able to get my hand inside and push up and add tape to the inside of the doll as well. 

The masking tape was still giving me trouble sticking to the project.   I finally found a way of setting the tape that worked.  As I had written in an earlier blog post, I used a foam brush to smooth down the paper strip with the flour paste.  This essentially gave the flour paste a grain line.  By adding a layer of tape running on each side of the cut, in the direction of the grain, the tape stuck better.  Then, when I put the pieces of the head back together, the piece of tape that was going across the cut was stuck to the tape on either side.  I guess the best way to explain it is that it looked like a railroad line.  You have the two rails and all the cross pieces that hold the rails.  Anyway, the tape holding the pieces of the head together stuck much better to the masking tape than to the dried flour paste.  With a considerable amount of pushing and pulling, the head was finally taped back together.

Once the pieces of the head were taped back together, I gave the entire head two layers of paper mache' to the outside of the head and one layer to the inside of the head, making sure that all of the tape was covered. First, I put on one layer outside and inside.  Then I put the head down in front of a fan and let the fan blow air into the head for a couple of hours.  I wanted to make sure that the inside dried quickly to make sure that it did not mold.  Then I allowed the head to dry overnight.  The next day I added a second layer to the outside. 

This is the last layer for the full head.  I will be adding layers build up certain areas and smooth out the areas where there might be a ridge.  I am almost finished with the first stage of making the doll's head.  There will be more on this in a future blog post.

Before I get into the features of the doll head, I will be blogging on a second project.  I am mindful that I had blogged at the beginning of January that I was trying to create a Halloween themed project of some kind each month.  January is almost over, but I have almost completed a (relatively) quick  project.  I will be blogging about that in the next blog post.  Check back next Sunday for that post.