This will be a pretty quick post today because I am pressed for time once again. It may not have as much detail in the post today, but I will do my best.
I left off at my last post with bracing one side of the Romance side and the far side with toothpicks. Once that was done, a second side was added to each body to cover the toothpicks. That left me with two fairly sturdy pieces of body for the cat and the tail.
I did the same thing with the tail. Since this tail is sticking out from the cat, it will be easier to add the tail to it. The tiger I made earlier had a tail that wrapped from his rear around to the front leg and required some different handling.
My next task was to turn these flat pieces into something three-dimensional. This is done by adding some internal supports. The supports were cut from cardboard. The supports are different widths to all for some shaping of the various parts of the body.
The supports are hot glued into place. After taking this picture, I realized that the head support was too wide. I had to take that out and replace it with a narrower cardboard piece. I did not add a lot of supports. I just need it sturdy enough to be able to stand up to the next phase. (Ignore the Modge Podge. It has nothing to do with this project, it just happened to be sitting there from when I brought it home for another project.)
The next phase is to add a strip that sits on the back of these supports. It is a strip of flexible cardboard that I cut from a manilla file folder. It is hot glued to these supports. The strip wraps around the body between the legs and continues all the way around the cats.
The cat is perched on a roll of tape. Because one front leg is higher than the other, it will not stand unaided as the other figures do. That will not really matter, because the animals will eventually be mounted on poles on the carousel.
This photo shows the strip of manilla folder wrapped around the cat's back. It continues around the belly of the cat, and up through the ears.
I cut the strip a little wider than the cat and glue it on with hot glue. Once everything is glued down, I use a craft knife to trim the edges flush with the sides of the cat.
And finally, once the cat has been trimmed to my satisfaction, I cover the animal with tape. Since this is created from card stock and cardboard, I want to make sure that it is well protected from moisture when I start adding the paper mâché paste and strips.
The cat's tail was added once I had covered the entire animal with tape. I measured to half-way across the rear and marked the spot. I added a drop of hot glue to the bottom of the tail and held it in place until it was dry. Then I added a small bead of hot glue to each side of the tail and wrapped it with masking tape while the glue was still warm so that the tail has a good bond.
Anyway, that is all for the day. Sorry for any typos or errors. The day is calling, and I really have to go, so no proofreading this time.
mâché
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