Paper Mâché Carousel Animals - Rabbit - Part 19

This week I have been putting the rabbit pieces together to make it into a three-dimensional animal.  In order to do this, I have to do some math.  I am working on one-eighth scale.  The directions I am working from are for wood carving full-size animals and is given in inches.  

Naturally, it starts with dividing the measurements by an eighth.  At this point I change over to the metric system.  I find that I have more accurate measurements by switching to centimeters and millimeters.  Up until the point that I needed to switch to the metric system, I had been doing it the old-fashioned way by using a pencil and paper.  Once I had all the measurements figured out, I head online and use programs set up on the internet to just plug in my numbers and get an instant answer.  It saves time.  

There are more measurements on the paper than I will use to cut the support pieces.  However, they do come in handy later in the process, when I need to know how wide or thick a certain part, such as a leg or the hoof should be.  It is a nice guide, but for the most part, I just keep working at it until I think it looks right.

Once I have my calculations complete, I cut out pieces of corrugated cardboard to the size I need the support pieces to be.  Several of the measurements will be the same, and it is easier to cut one piece and use that to mark the measurements for the rest of the pieces. 

For a quick recap for new readers, I had previously cut out the two rabbit shapes for each side of the animal, glued toothpick supports and then glued the second shape on top of the first to cover the toothpicks.  Scroll back to the previous post for more detailed information or visit the blog at 

folkartbycaroljones@blogspot.com

I start the next part of the process by hot gluing the support pieces to the underside of one of the pieces as seen in this picture.

I have been experimenting with how best to place the supports.  In this case I have glued them to the very outer edge of the shape.  In other animals, I have glued them further into the body of the shape.  Both ways work, but I think that it is a little harder to get the hard edge off the ones that are glued right at the very edge.  

I do not cover the entire edge with the supports.  I just need a few here and there.  

This photo shows the second rabbit piece has been glued onto the supports.  It does not stand on its own.  The legs are not exactly equal, and it has a little bit of a lean to it.  One support that is just below the shoulder seemed to be the main culprit.  I had to snip the support with some scissors and glue it back together.  That helped a little bit.  There is still a little bit of an imbalance, but I think I will be able to correct that at the point that I put the animals on their poles. 

The next step is to cover the supports.  I use a strip of a manilla file folder.  In this case I have marked the strip at intervals because the front of the rabbit is wider than the rear of the rabbit.  The marked lines gave me a little guidance on where to cut for the narrower sections.  

If you look closely, you can see that I have also glued on some bits of aluminum foil to help fill out the hip area.  I wanted to add it on before I started the next step, which will be to cover the entire animal with masking tape.

I need to end here for today.  I still have a few steps to do before the rabbit is ready for the tape.  Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.