Green Man Pumpkin - Part 12 - Finishing the Last leaves on the Back

 In my last blog post I showed that I was working on the vines and leaves on the back of the pumpkin.  These leaves look different from the leaves on the face because they are to represent the pumpkin leaves.  I was about two-thirds of the way through.  This week I finished the pumpkin leaves.

I have been using paper mâché clay to make the leaves.  As I mentioned earlier, I have been working out of two partial bags of the clay mix to complete this project.  I ran out of clay with just one leaf left to make.  That was pretty annoying. I considered raiding my husband's dry wall materials from the basement, but what he had on hand was DAP brand. I have not tried using this, but multiple internet sources say that you should not use DAP brand because it does not work well for paper clay.  

With twenty minutes to go before dinner, I was not enthusiastic about making a trip to the hardware store.  I decided to try to make something from what I had on hand.  I had been using a paper towel to clean the paper mâché clay off of my gloved hands.  The paper towel was pretty well saturated with the product.  So, I ripped the paper towel into miniscule pieces and soaked it in the remains of my diluted glue mix. (60/40 mix of white glue and water).  Then I squeezed out the excess liquid, ripped it up some more, squeezed it again, then mixed it with a bit of undiluted white glue.  I kneaded it until it was thoroughly mixed and the right consistency for clay.  

Once I had this clay mixed, I put it on a leaf and added it too the pumpkin in the usual manner.  (See earlier posts for more details on adding the leaves.)  That leaf is near the top, just left of center.  

The clay was very moist, and it took a long time to dry.  I set it in front of a fan to help it dry faster.  It has been very humid and storming here for days.  I did not want to just let it dry on its own because I was concerned about the leaf molding.  

The clay had a different texture.  Even though I shredded it into the tiniest pieces I could, it was still a little lumpy.  during the drying time I gave it a few presses with my fingers to flatten it out a little.  Because of the texture difference it was not very amenable to my adding the leaf veins in the usual manner.  When I tried to pull the mechanical pencil lead through it, the clay tended to lump up.  After it was about half-way dry, I went in with a different tool and pressed some veins into the clay.  

I had a Plan B, if this had not worked.  My plan was to wait until it was completely dry and giving it a skim coat of modeling paste and drawing the leaf veins through that.  However, it did not come to that.  

The clay is adhering well to the pumpkin.  It has not tried to peel up.  For a makeshift fix, this worked pretty well.  That is what I like about paper mâché; there are so many ways to work with it.  While some ways may work better than others in any given situation, there is always a way to make it work.

This is a good stopping point on this project.  For the next couple of weeks, I will be blogging about my other long-term project: the carousel.   I have added some new details to previous carousel animals and am ready to start a new animal.  After that I will be back to blogging about the next phase of the Green Man Pumpkin.  There will be more on that in the coming weeks.  Check back next week for a new post.