Paper Mâché Carousel - Central Column and First Primer Coat - Part 35

The old saying is that something taking a long time is like watching paint dry.  Basically, I have been doing just that this week; watching paint dry and watching paper mâché dry.

I have been adding layers of paper mâché to the central column.  From the standpoint of a picture, it does not look as if much has changed from last week to this week.  However, if you were to see it in person it would look much thicker this week.  I now have two layers of paper mâché on the inside and three layers on the outside.  

I still need to add at least one more layer to the inside, and two more layers to the outside.  Although this piece will not be bearing the total weight of the roof, I still want it to be plenty strong.  I do not want the weight of the roof to deform the cylinder.

Each layer has taken about forty-five minutes to an hour to apply.  It does not look as if it should take that long for each layer, but part of it has to do with the difficulty factor.  This is a tall cylinder and trying to work on it was hampered by my being so short that I had to either stand up to see into it or hold it on a slant, which then wanted to roll.  

The time for each layer also included the prep time for tearing the paper to the correct size and prepping the flour paste.  If the paper is the correct size, it will be easier to smooth it onto the project without a lot of wrinkles.  Fewer wrinkles mean less sanding and fewer defects in the finished piece.

I find that making the flour paste mixture works best if given a few minutes to hydrate.  I stir it constantly during that time to get rid of any flour lumps.  That way I have a very few lumps in it and that cuts down on sanding time later in the project.  Sanding is my least favorite part of the process.

While waiting for the paper mâché to dry, I started to add the first coat of primer to the underside of one of the plywood bases. Clearly it needs a second coat.  

I am using Gesso as a primer.  All of the pieces will be painted with acrylic paints, so I decided to use a primer that I knew was compatible with the paints.  

So that is all the progress for this week.  It does not look like a lot of work, but really it was about four hours across multiple days.  At times like these, I just remind myself not to get frustrated with how slow the process can be sometimes.  When that happens, I just have to tell myself to focus on the next step.  As long as I just make the next step, I will be closer to finishing this project.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next update.