Paper Mâché Carousel Animals - Tiger - Part 8

I am still working on the tiger for my carousel.  I had hoped to have the cotton clay layer added before this post, but that did not work out.  Unseasonably cool temperatures allowed my husband and I to get some work done we had been putting off because it was just too hot and humid.  So only a small step forward on this project.

Two layers of standard strip paper mâché have been added to the tiger.  I wanted to have some extra layers of protection for the figure before adding the cotton clay.  That clay will be moist for about twenty-four hours.  I did not want it to soften the cardstock and cause the animal shape to sag or collapse.

Right now, the animal almost looks like a bear more than a tiger.  It will look different after the tail is added.  The face still needs a little work also.  The front of the face looks a little flat.  I plan to work on that when I add the clay.

I had figures collapse on a project once years ago.  I was making some fairly tall figures that I wanted to paint for a Christmas scene.  My paste was too moist, and it permeated the tape and made the underlying cardboard soggy.  Over the course of a few hours, I kept hearing thuds coming from my studio as one by one the figures collapsed and fell from the worktable to the floor.  It was pretty disheartening.  I never did get back to that project. 

Anyway, today I plan to try to work with the cotton clay.  I have spent a couple of hours tearing cotton balls into small shreds of cotton this past week.  With twenty-twenty hindsight, I will say that I probably should have been wearing a mask while I did this.  Little fluffs of cotton kept flying up to my face.  Keeping a lint roller handy would be helpful as well.  I was covered with little strands of cotton by the time I was finished.

I found the recipe for cotton clay on the internet.  It calls for boiling the cotton with flour and water.  I keep an old pot that I don't use for food for these types of projects.  I am really not thrilled with the whole boiling and waiting for it to cool thing.  I once did a project where I had to boil some wool.  It really stank.  Cotton may not do the same thing, but I want to try something else first. 

Boiling the cotton may cause the fibers to open up more to accept the paper mâché mixture better and make the clay a more cohesive clay, but I am not sure that it is totally necessary.  I have some paper mâché clay recipes that called for boiling the paper first but really worked just as well by soaking the paper over night.

I think I would prefer to just soak cotton until it is damp and then squeeze any excess moisture out of it. Then mix it with flour, water, and diluted glue.  I may try that first to see if it works.  

So that is about it for today.  I will be blogging next week on what happened with the cotton clay.  The worst that could happen is I have to start over on the tiger or the clay (or both).

Check back next week (Monday or Tuesday) for the next blog post.