Homemade Paper Mâché Clay and Carousel Animals Have Their Saddle Blankets-Pictures - Part 51

I will be showing pictures of the animals with their blankets as I go along with the post.  I don't seem to have as much control over picture placement as I had in previous years.  The animals only have their blankets at this point.  I will also write about how I was able to work with putting the clay on the animals while leaving the hole for the poles for the carousel animals clear (and keeping my fingers out of the clay on one side while working on the other side).  The saddle will be added separately in the next week or so.

 I made my homemade paper clay this week.  I started with one recipe, but found it was too coarse for its intended use.  So, I started over.  I generally make my own paper clay rather than buying a premixed clay or a bag of clay mixture to which you add just water.  These mixtures are expensive (between $7.00 and $30.00 or more depending on size and type) and making paper clay costs so much less (under $2.00 when you consider the cost of the glue and tissue paper).  It is very easy to make and can be made fairly quickly depending on what method you use.  I will get to the method in just a paragraph or two.

I just want to say before I get started that it is not a case of one recipe being right for every project.  Which type of paper mâché method you use depends on the individual project.  Some clays can be made in larger batches and can be kept in the refrigerator for several days; others can only be made in smaller batches and used immediately.  For this project, I needed rather small amounts because of the small size of the animals and because I generally have to work on tight time schedules. I chose this clay because I wanted the blanket to have a cloth-like appearance once it is dry.  

One more thing before I get started, I have been working with paper mâché since I was about seven years old, so sixty plus years ago.  Having worked in it for so long, I rarely measure ingredients.  I work with it until I say, "that looks right."  I have tried to make some measurements for explaining my clay process to help readers who may wish to try it.  It is not exact and you may need to add a little of this or that to get it to the consistency you desire.

So on with the process.  To make this clay I used toilet tissue, water, and white multi-purpose glue. That is all that is in it.  I started by deciding how much toilet tissue I needed.  I was working in small batches, and each batch made about enough to make saddle blankets for two animals and have a little left over to experiment (play) with.  By the time I had completed the second saddle blanket the clay was getting a little tacky.

How did I measure how much toilet paper?  I grabbed a roll of septic safe toilet tissue, (it breaks down faster) held the loose end in one hand and the roll on a finger of the other.  I unrolled the paper until I could spread my arms no further.  That came to thirteen sheets at a time.  I did this four times, so fifty-two sheets.  Then I said that looks about right. 

Next, I ripped each length of sheets into pieces two squares of
toilet paper each, stacked them into pile. Then working four of the two squares at a time I ripped them downwards into about four or five strips.  After that I would grab a set of strips and pinched the strips into about half-inch (approximately 12.7 mm) pieces until I had my container filled with bits of tissue.  Once that was done, I added about two or three Tablespoons (about 15 ml. per Tablespoon) of water and mashed it in with the paper.  At this point I only wanted it to be damp.  Squeeze any excess water out of the paper.

I will note that you could have done put this in a blender with plenty of water, but you have to be careful.  Even toilet tissue has a grain.  If you leave the strips too long, they could wrap around the blade and bind up the blender.  Also, cleanup could be problematic.  You don't want the paper clinging to the blender to go down the drain during cleanup.  

Once the paper was damp, I crumbled it up into small bits between my fingers.  As you can see it greatly reduced in volume.  To that pile of damp paper, I added about three Tablespoons (approx. 45 ml) of white multi-purpose glue to the mix and mixed it thoroughly by squeezing it with my hands.  Note: I was wearing gloves.   Once the glue worked in, the mixture will be a little dry and crumbly.  Add some water at no more than a half-teaspoon (about 2.5 ml) at a time and work it in thoroughly until the clay is completely mixed.  If you add too much water, squeeze out the mixture and add more paper or glue as needed.  You will know it is right when there are no more odd bits of paper and it looks smooth. 

This makes a very soft clay.  I put it between two small sheets of freezer paper and rolled it with my clay rolling pen.  Once it was flat, I cut shapes to size using a story stick rather than getting my clay tools and ruler covered in paper clay. Once the clay hardens it will be difficult to get it off the tools.

In case you are not familiar with a story stick, it is an ancient construction technique used at a time when many people did not read or write.  The foreman would figure out what size something needed to be and mark it on a stick so that people that did not know how to read and measure accurately could make accurate cuts.  In this case my story stick is just a wooden craft stick.  One end is marked with a dot so I would know which end to use to begin the measurement.  The mark closest to the dot is the length measurement in this case.  The mark further from the dot is the width measurement.

With the clay still on the freezer paper, I cut a three rectangles. one for one side of the animal and across its back.  The clay is very soft and when you try to pick it up the shape will deform.  That is okay.  I wanted it soft so that I could sculpt it and smooth it out easily.  I found that a bit of an old file folder slid underneath the clay could lift it off the paper without changing the shape too much.  I used my story stick again to determine where to place the clay and smeared some full-strength white glue on the area, then added the rectangle and shaped it as I wanted.

After the first rectangle was placed on the animal, I would dip my story stick into some water and smooth the clay.  Once it was fairly smooth, I went over it again with a diluted glue mix of fifty percent water and fifty percent white glue for a final smoothing and to make sure that the clay was saturated with the glue.

When adding clay to the second side, I put a dowel through the hole that the carousel animals' pole will go through.  I could hold onto the pole and brace my thumb against the animals' leg which kept me from putting my fingers on the wet clay (most of the time.) on the side I had just worked.  Sometimes I had to rework an area.  I picked up another rectangle and added the glue and clay to the second side.  

Once I had the side pieces smoothed and shaped as I wanted, I would add the third rectangle to the back of the animal using the same method.  The main thing to remember when working on the back is that the clay must stay clear of the hole that the pole will go through.  You do not want any glue or clay in that area because once it is dry it could be difficult to insert a pole through the hole.  If glue had dripped down into the hole clean it as quickly as possible.  In the worst-case scenario you could scrape it out after it dries with a small file.

I also added the belly strap using more or less the same method.  The clay is so soft that it did not want to roll out into a narrow cylindrical (snake) shape.  It kept coming apart, so I did the best I could set it into place and then shape and smooth it as needed.

The animals and their accessories will still need sanding before they are painted.  The clay areas are smooth and dried to a hard finish without cracking.  It takes about two or three days for this clay to dry, so they will need to be braced in a way that nothing is touching the clay during the drying phase.  It is probably best not to touch the clay for at least two days.

The clay for the saddle will be made the same way.  I did not make the saddles at the same time because the clay would have been too thick.  With this moist type of clay there would be a possibility of mold developing.  I thought it would be better to make them as a separate piece.  Keeping the pieces separate will give the saddle more definition.

This is the second horse.  The mane is shaped differently from the other horse but otherwise the pattern is the same.  While I was thinking about how to make the saddle and wondered how I should make the stirrups.  For inspiration I turned to some porcelain carousel horse statues that a friend had recently given me.  They are absolutely beautiful.  To my surprise, I noticed something that I had not paid attention to before.  None of the saddles had stirrups.  They are so ornately cast and painted that I had not even realized that the stirrups were not there.  I think I am going to make the saddles the same way.  It saves a lot of work.  I am not sure how I would make stirrups that small.

This rabbit is the final carousel animal.  He is my least favorite of all the animals.  I originally made six animals, and planned to have two rows of animals, but had to back off that idea when I realized just how large this would make the carousel platform.  Other than plopping it in the center of my living room rug, there was no place in my home with enough space for it.  I had to downsize it to have somewhere to put it.  

My final animal was a cat.  I would rather have used the cat than the rabbit, but it did not work out.  With a single row of animals, the cat was so long that its tail was hitting the nose of the animal behind it.  I either had to remake the cat with its tail in a different position or go with the rabbit.  I chose to go with the rabbit because I did not want to have to start over on the cat.  I hope the rabbit looks better once it is painted.  If I find I cannot live with it, there will be another cat to make.

There is still plenty to do on this project.  Once the saddles are finished, I will start working on the bridles, which will be a completely different method.  I will get into that in a different blog post.  After that, everything will need to be given a good sanding.  (Have I mentioned recently that I really hate sanding.).  Once the sanding is complete, I will be painting the animals and staining the poles for the animals.  Even though there is still much to do, it feels as if the end of this project is coming closer.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.