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.

Green Man Pumpkin Part 5- Internal Work On the Pumpkin Needed Before Face Added

I apologize for the delay in getting this post up.  A family member had a health problem, and I have been dealing with hospitals, doctors, physical therapists, and a myriad number of other services.  On top of that we had a trip planned and have had relatives come to visit.  In short, my creative work came to a screeching halt for the week or two.  However, I hope to be getting back on track now.  

There is some work that needs to be done on the inside of the pumpkin before I add the face to the pumpkin.  If you read the earlier post about putting the pieces of the pumpkin back together, you may recall that the two halves of the pumpkin were glued together with hot glue, taped with masking tape, and papered over with layers of paper mâché.  (If you cannot scroll back and see the posts, you can look at the blog at folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com).  That left two seams on the inside of the pumpkin that had not been covered with tape and paper mâché.  

Although it is not easy to see in this photo, one of the unfinished seams has been covered with tape.  It is far easier to do the paper mâché on these seams while the pumpkin has this large opening available.  It can be done through the smaller opening on the bottom, but it will be much less aggravating to do it now.  Some people may not wish to do the extra layers but remember that the hot glue is translucent and light may shine through it if not adequately covered.  

The openings in the front and bottom have also been covered in masking tape.  My plan is to cover all of the areas with paper mâché at once before putting on the face.  

I won't keep you in suspense.  This is how I plan to place the face on the pumpkin.  I hope to have pictures of all this in another week or so. 

If I keep the paper mâché below the line marked with a sharpie on the large hole, it will give me a small shelf to set the face on.  Then I will hot glue the face onto the pumpkin, tape it and cover it with layers of paper mâché.

At this point, it would also be worthwhile to paint the inside of the pumpkin while you have the large opening available.  I have another method for painting it using the small hole.  Which one is better might depend on how much tolerance you have for mess.  If you do choose to paint the inside now remember one important point.  The glue will not hold as well on a painted surface.  Even though there will be more tape and paper mâché to come, it is better to leave the area to be glued unpainted.  Otherwise, the hold of the glue is only as strong as the coat of paint.

There will be an area under the chin that will need to have some work done to have it flush with the pumpkin.  I may also want to do some work on building up the lips before I add the face to the pumpkin.  

Once again, I want to apologize for being late with the post.  It has been one of those times that life has thrown a curve ball.  Things are not getting back on track and hopefully things will run smoothly for a while.

Adding Muscles to the Carousel Horses

 Last blog post I showed pictures of how I made the carousel horses three-dimensional.  The sides of the horses were still flat.  Today I have pictures of how I gave the horses some muscles to make them seem more realistic.  

This is a photo of the horse before I started adding the musculature.  Notice that the edges of the horse are hard edges.  These edges will get softer as more layers of paper mâché are added.  

The horse's legs look very dainty at this point.  Unfortunately, they will look somewhat larger as more layer of paper mâché are added.  They may require some paring down to keep the legs from looking too large and heavy.  There will be more on that in a different blog post.  I am trying to have all of the animals up to this point before I move on to the next stage.

I made two horses.  Having two horses gives me two ways to experiment on how I want to proceed with making the animals.  (I say animals because not all of them will be horses.)  One method will be building up the musculature using just my usual method of building up with just paper and paste.  The other method will make use of small bits of foil and tape to form the muscles.

The first method, using just paper and flour paste did build up the animal's neck, shoulders, and haunches, but it took a long time to get the animal to have the shape I wanted.  It is hard to see the thicker areas in this picture, but there is definitely more shape to the horse.  With paper mâché, you should only add two layers at a time.  If you add more layers than that you run the risk of having the object start to develop mold, especially if the weather is raining or humid.

Actually, in all my years of working with paper mâché, I have only had one project develop mold.  I treated it with 91% alcohol, then dried it thoroughly by sitting it in front of a box fan.  That took care of the problem, and it did not continue to form mold.  However, it took a long time to get it to dry, and I was always wondering if the mold would reappear.  Although I kept that project around for years, it did not change the paper, and no mold ever showed through the paint.  

The second method was to use bits of aluminum foil to build up the shapes.  In this photo the neck, shoulder, and leg have had bits of aluminum foil shaped to resemble muscles.  Then they are taped over with masking tape to keep them in place.  The rump and thigh have already had the foil and tape in place.

It is important to remember that you build up the muscles to almost the size you want them, but not exactly as large as you want them.  There will be multiple layers of paper mâché on top of this and this will add more bulk.  The paper mâché will also smooth out some of the wrinkles you see in the picture.

I stopped adding foil at the thigh because extra layers of paper mâché will add enough bulk to the lower legs.  If I added foil to the lower legs now they would appear oversized.

This photo shows the two horses side by side.  The one on the left was the paper mâché only method.  The one on the right was the foil method.  

The horse on the left is bulkier and heavier than the one on the right.  It needed a lot of paper mâché to build up the muscles and I had to add a little to the middle to make it look right.  I am thinking at this point that the left horse might turn into a Clydesdale.  The other horse might be an Arabian.

All in all, the foil method was much faster.  This is important to know going forward.  Making a carousel is a long-term project.  Anything that can cut the time is helpful.

I will be working on other animals in the near future.  I will be blogging about them as they are being made.  My plan is to get all the animals to the point that they are ready for sanding and painting.  Then I can take them outside to do the sanding.  It will help keep down the mess in the studio.  

I will be taking a couple of weeks to work on my other long-term project.  I find that if I continue to work solely on one project for months at a time that I start to suffer from burn out.  Switching back and for between projects helps keep me interested and not getting stalled on any one project.  

My other project is a Green Man paper mâché pumpkin.  I have to get it started because it will also take months to complete, and it is already April.   I will be blogging on the beginnings of that project for the next couple of posts.  Check back next week to learn more about this project.  After a few posts on that, I will be back to blogging about the carousel animals.

Paper Mâché Owl- Part 15 -Quick Post

I have just a quick post and no new pictures this week.  The photo below is the same as last weeks picture.  I have been out of town, and had very little time to work on the project.  The best that I could do was to finish the layers of paper mâché on the beak and feet.  I will be starting the painting this afternoon.  

After two coats of gesso, I will begin painting.  I am both excited and stressed about this part of the project.  I am hoping that I will make a good job of painting the owl.  I have put so much work into the project that I start to stress over perhaps messing it up at this stage.  

I have looked at a number of owl pictures for great horned owls and long eared owls.  I really had no idea how individual the plumage on owls actually are.  In some ways that is a relief.  There is so much diversity in the plumage that I can't feel that I am "doing it wrong".  Of course there are many similarities around the face of an owl, but I can readily say that you could tell individual owls from their markings.

Anyway, that is about as far as I have taken the project.  Next week there will be time for me to work on it.  Check back next Tuesday to see the latest on this project.

Paper Mâché Owl Part 8 Adding Some Bulk and Feathers

Last blog post I said the most of the armature was complete.  I guess the key word there was "most".  Once I had the owl standing, I decided that it needed some padding around the thigh.  So I added some foil and tape to fill out the thigh.  I used foil to create the shape.  After that it was covered with more tape.

                                                             

Padding the thigh.

After the thigh was padded, the wing did not seem to have enough shape, so I added some shaped layers of foil and tape on both wings.  Building up the armature is a multistep process.  With each layer I try to make it look a little more like an owl.

                                      Adding more shaping to the wings.

The feet needed some bulking up before I start to add the layers of paper mâché.  Owl's feet and claws are covered with thick skin, much like chicken feet.  They are bumpy and very rough.  To mimic that shape, I used some hot glue to give the foot some texture and make it a little thicker.  This will also reduce the amount of layers of paper mâché needed to fill out the feet.  

Hot glue on the feet to add some bulk.

This completed most of the armature, but it needs feathers to make it look more like a bird.  Next blog post I will show adding the "feathers".  Check back next week for the next segment.

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 7 - Owl Now Standing On Its Feet

Last week I blogged about making the legs and claws.  This week I am pleased to say that the owl is now standing on its own two feet.  Getting the owl's legs attached and the owl balanced was not an easy task.  I had to move the legs forward from where I had anticipated they would be placed to make it stand up. All in all it took a little over an hour to get it to stay up.  The owl leans a little bit, but in a way it makes it look as if it is strutting rather than being still.  Sometimes I just have to work with what is there rather than making it look exactly as I would like.

Owl legs and feet.

The "thigh bone" is a little longer than it would be on a real bird.  I had to make sure that the wires of the upper legs would have enough length to support the weight of the bird.  They were almost too long.  I actually tried cutting them back a little bit, but the four doubled wired in each leg proved too difficult to cut.  It was easier to use them as they were.  Otherwise, I would have had to start over making the legs again.  I would have liked the upper legs to be about half an inch shorter, but such is life.  

The first leg went on easily enough.  I figured out the balance point I was trying to achieve and hot glued the leg into place. You can see a small mark that showed where I originally thought the balance point would be versus where it needed to be. Then I glued in some heavy cardboard supports to keep the leg from slipping.  The close up picture of the supports is from the first side.

Close up of mounted leg.

The second leg was where the trouble came in.  Just trying to match the first leg's position was not enough.  It took a couple of tries to get it in the right place.  What looked like the balance point was a little off.  I had to remove and re-glue the leg a couple of times to get it to stand up.  It made me glad that I had multiple layers of tape on the body.  One of the layers pulled off during the removal of the leg from the failed attempts.  

The second side is somewhat messier than the first side. It was difficult to try to balance the bird on one leg while using one hand to hold the glue gun and also make sure the second leg was in the right place.   It took a lot of glue to get the leg to stay on the bird. However, the messy glue is not something to worry about at this point.  There is still plenty left to do before the armature is completed.  No one will see the messy glue once it is covered with paper mâché.

Owl side view.

In order to get the owl to stand without wobbling,  I had to bend the wires of the claws a bit.  The rest of the feet will be built up with layers of paper mâché.  The important thing to remember when making something using an armature and paper mâché is that it is built up in layers.  Where you start is not where it will be when it is finished.  It just takes a lot of patience to get to the finish line.  

I still have a bit of work to do on the armature.  I need to add some padding around the legs.  Since there are cardboard supports, I also want to add another layer of Press and Seal and some tape over that area to prevent the cardboard from becoming soggy when I start to add the paper mâché.  

Owl strutting.

Other than padding the legs, the armature is pretty much finished.  Then the real work begins.  I still have to create the eyes and I have to start considering the feathers.  I would like to build in some of the shape of the feathers before I start adding the layers of papier mâché.  I think that creating some feather definition will make the feathers stand out more when it comes to painting the owl.  More on that in a future post.

Check back next week for the next post.

Returning to Blogging - New Pumpkin Pictures

 After a few years away from blogging, I am returning.  During the time I wasn't blogging, I have had some health issues and have spent a lot of time caring for an aging parent.  There was so much going on that I really had little time for art and creativity and less for blogging.  I had to make a choice between using my limited spare time to create something or to try to blog about what I was doing.  I chose to drop the blogging because being creative is what keeps me feeling grounded when everything around me is causing a lot of stress.

It has been a while since I used Blogger, so it might take me a few posts to get the hang of all the techniques.  I hope readers will bear with me while I catch up.

I was also experiencing some creative burn out.  It happens, especially if someone is trying to do variations on a theme.  For some time, I have been making papier mâché pumpkins.  So far I have made seven of them.  All except the last three have been posted on the blog.  I am posting the pictures of those pumpkins on this post.  

On one pumpkin, I was experimenting with making a more human face and teeth.  As one of my friends said, "This pumpkin really creeps me out."  I made the teeth myself out of paper clay and painted them.  In case readers are interested, you can buy plastic teeth on Amazon that look more realistic.  I chose to make them myself because I wanted to see if I could.

I was experimenting with some different techniques and materials on these two pumpkins.  They look much different from the other pumpkins mainly because I was trying out using house paint rather than acrylic paints.  I had read on the internet that some pumpkin makers were using house paint.  In some ways it makes sense.  The house paint is probably going to be more waterproof and less susceptible to ultraviolet damage than craft acrylics.  However, there are not a lot of choices in orange colors of house paint.  I found the paint to be overly bright.  Some artists have tried to tone it down by painting over the orange and wiping off black paint. I decided not to try it for those pumpkins painted bright orange because the color seemed to be expressing what I was feeling at the time.

One pumpkin appears stressed and about ready to go completely around the bend.  I made that one at the time I thought I if I could just power through everything I would get through the situations.  The jarringly bright colors, wide eyes, and the huge smile seemed to say how I felt as I tried to put on a bright smile everyday and just keep going despite what I was feeling inside.

The experiment for the last of the latest pumpkins was on reverse painting glass eyes.  I had not tried anything like that before.  When you look at the pumpkin in normal light, the eyes seem depressed or melancholy.  It seems that somehow I had once again managed to input how I was feeling into the pumpkin as I came to realize that the situation was not going to change any time soon and I was going to have to change my lifestyle and schedules to adapt to ongoing situations    However, when I put the pumpkin out for Halloween this year and used bright color changing LED pool lights to light it up, the eyes look very fierce in some colors and as if the eyes were on fire in bright yellow or orange.  So all in all, I still consider the project a win, even though it looks somewhat more depressed than I would have liked.

So one of my adaptation is to make something other than pumpkins for a while.  I still have an idea for at least one more, but it may have to wait a few months for me to begin on that.  I have been working on some other projects, and I have been working on other skills. I have another project to show you next blog post.

A new project has begun and I will be blogging about it in the next blog post.  I used to blog twice a week, but for now I am going to stick to blogging once a week.  I felt a lot of pressure to put on material twice a week.  I am hoping that starting slowly will help me stay on task.  So check in next week to see the new (non-pumpkin) project.

Coming Soon: More Pumpkins for the Pumpkin Patch

This past Halloween was pretty much a non-starter due to Covid-19 virus.  I am hoping that 2021 will be a spectacular Halloween.  I want to be ready with some great decorations.This past Halloween was pretty much a non-starter due to Covid-19 virus.  I am hoping that 2021 will be a spectacular Halloween.  I want to be ready with some great decorations. I wanted to show you my two latest paper maché pumpkins.  They will soon be turned into Jack O' Lanterns  for my (hoped for) 2021 Halloween decorations.  I have been working on this project for a while, but I am just now finding the time to blog about it.

I want to have a dozen or so carved or decorated pumpkins that I could use year after year.  However, a dozen of the Funkin type pumpkins available locally sell for about $30.00 each at the craft store.  Maybe I could find them cheaper online, but they are still fairly expensive.  The larger size paper maché pumpkins I did find online were still $5.00 apiece.  That is a better price range, but still, why pay sixty dollars when I can make them all for about $7.00 total.  Even better, I can make the paper maché pumpkins waterproof for just a few dollars more.  

The large pumpkin was cast on a real pumpkin, then cut off in quadrants and then put back together with hot glue and more layers of paper maché.  The smaller pumpkin was cast on a styrofoam pumpkin. I think you can see that the one made using a real pumpkin is much more lifelike.  

I have already cut off the top and finished the edges of the top on the large pumpkin.  That is really the most frustrating part of the entire project.  When you cut open paper maché the layers separate and flare a little bit, so the don't always settle back neatly into exact position.  I have to cover the edges.  Also, I build a rim on the inside of the pumpkin and on the inside of the top to help the top fit on neatly without any gaps.  Picture a sugar bowl and how the top fits on that to understand what I am saying here.

Before I start creating the Jack O' Lantern face on the large pumpkin, I plan to cast a few more pumpkins using this pumpkin as a mold.  The original pumpkin has long since become unusable and gone into the trash.  I would like to have a few more pumpkins in this size before I start making the faces on them.  

Before I start with the layers of paper and paste, I covered this pumpkin completely with a product called Press and Seal.  It can be found in supermarkets in the plastic wrap aisle.  I prefer Press and Seal to regular plastic wrap because it seals to itself.  Plastic wrap works, but can come loose or leave leaves areas where the plastic wrap bunches up.   I will say that the Press and Seal does not have a good cutting edge on the box.  I usually pull off a big piece, place it on a cutting board, and cut it into strips using a ruler and a craft knife.  For a large pumpkin like the one above, I was cutting the Press and Seal into two inch strips. (I place the strips vertically on the pumpkin.)  I know it sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but it makes a much neater surface for the paper maché.  That may not be important in every project, but if someone is going to be viewing the inside of the finished project, then it might be a factor.

It takes about 45 minutes to cover a pumpkin of this size with one layer of paper maché.  I usually only add one layer at a time.  I want to make sure that the layer is completely dry before adding another layer.  You can add two layers, but don't do more than that at one time.   Paper maché can mold if it stays damp too long.  All told, the pumpkin will have six layer of paper maché with additional layers over the edges where the pumpkin was cut apart and put back together.

A large pumpkin like this one will take about six to seven hours of paper maché work, plus several more hours to take it apart and put it back together.  Then the actual fun begins of making the face.  I can understand why some people would rather buy the Funkins or craft pumpkins.  But, if you like working in paper mach, all of that work is just part of the fun.  It is a challenge to start with a flat piece of paper and turn it into a three dimensional project.  I like that.

I put on three layers, then mark and label my cutting lines and any cutting cues for putting the pumpkin back together.  Then, I cut the form off the original pumpkin.  I find that it comes off best in quadrants. (For more info and pictures about this see my post on December 29th, 2020 at folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com)  Once it is apart, I put it back together with hot glue and more layers of paper maché. 

The smaller pumpkin was cast and reformed in the same manner.  I did not cast the stem for this pumpkin.  I found the stem was somewhat of an annoyance while working on the large pumpkin.  I will make my own stem when I cut off the top and open up the pumpkin.  

I mentioned that for a few dollars more, I could make the pumpkins waterproof.  I found that rather than using water to make the flour paste, I could use Thinset Mortar Admix.  It is in the tile section of hardware stores.  If you can find a smaller bottle, you are to the good.  Mostly you will find it in gallon size.  I had some leftover from my stained glass gazing ball projects.  This product also comes in a powder to which you add water.  Either way, it works.

This product is really a liquid latex.  I experimented with it on some small projects.  I made a paper maché ball using the thinset mortar admix. After drying the project, it soaked it in water for three hours.  The paper held together.  When removed from the water and set out to dry, the entire ball stayed intact.  It was amazing.  It will help these projects last for years.  (You can read more on this on my blog on December 30th, 2020 at folkartbycaroljones.blogspotcom)

So my plan for the next few weeks is to make a few more pumpkins.  By that time I will be pretty bored with laying strips of paper, so I will take some time to create the faces and paint the Jack O' Lanterns.  When I am bored with that process, I will go back to making pumpkins.  

Will I be able to make all of the pumpkins this year?  I don't know.  Life has a habit of getting in the way.  However, I will do what I can.  If it takes a year or two years, I will still have a great display.

Waterproofing Paper Mâché Experiment Results

After the ball was cut off the Styrofoam ball and put back together.

Last week I started an experiment to see if a product could help waterproof paper mâché.  Many of us who work in paper mâché want to make items that can be used outside.  Paper mâché objects do not fare well in outdoor conditions since it is made from paper, flour paste, and water.  Painting and sealing with an exterior sealer help, but even that has its limitations. Items left outside overlong can be subject to water getting into the paper mâché and collapsing.  Last week I started an experiment to see if a product could help waterproof paper mâché. Today, I am reporting the results of the experiment.

The ball soaking in a tub of water.  It floated.

I will recap the experiment briefly.  I covered a Styrofoam ball with masking tape and then covered the tape with a layer of Press and Seal, a product available in grocery stores to cover food.  I covered the Press and Seal with three layers of newsprint soaked in a flour and water paste with some thin set mortar admix added at roughly a one to one to the amount of water. (I will describe my paper mâché methods in more detail below.)  After three layers, I used a craft knife to cut the dried paper mâché layer from the ball.  I cut it into four sections to remove the ball because I wanted to use the ball in other projects.  Using hot glue, I glued the sections back into a ball.  After the ball was back together, I covered it with three more layers of paper mâché.  The paper mâché ball had no other paint or sealers to protect the ball.  At that point, I was ready to see just how well a wet ball would hold up if it was placed in a container of water and left to sit for an extended period of time. 

Water infiltration above the waterline.

I put the ball in a container of water, making sure the ball was well soaked with water all over.  The ball floated.  I checked the ball at five minutes, ten minutes, half an hour, one hour, one and a half hours and two hours.  The ball floated the whole time.  After an hour, the section of the ball above the waterline had dried completely.  At an hour and a half, I began to see a few places where water seemed to be infiltrating in a few small places above the waterline.  I was unsure whether the water infiltration was caused by the ball moving around as it floated in the container.  At two hours, there was a definite line where the water was creeping above the water line. 

Completely dry again.  No edges came loose.

At two hours, I pulled the ball out of the water to see how badly the water had damaged the integrity of the ball.  The outer layer felt slimy, but the ball still felt solid.  I decided to end the soaking part of the experiment and see what happened to the ball as it dried.  After a few hours, the ball felt dry. 

By the next morning the ball was completely dry.  It is solid with no collapsed areas from having been wet.  None of the strips of the paper had come loose or pulled up on the edges.  Everything was as well glued down as when it went into the water.

I guess my conclusion is that by adding the thin set mortar admix that it did help to some extent in waterproofing the   paper mâché.  I will now be testing to see how well paint will work over this type of mixture.  If it holds paint well, and with additional sealer on top of the paint, it will add another step to making paper mâché be more outside friendly.  I will be reporting on this as things go along.

I am kind of annoyed with myself in one aspect.  If I had taken the time to make a extra ball with a standard  paper mâché mix, I could have compared the difference between the two mixtures and how it affected the ball.  I would also have liked to tried this experiment with the penetrating sealer I wrote about when making my last pumpkin.  Unfortunately, I did not have any more, or at least not enough for the project.

The method I used to make the  paper mâché ball. 

Please note:  I used eye protection and gloves while making and applying the mixture. When working with paper mâché you need to protect your work surface and flooring with plastic or some type of drop cloth.

I have worked with paper mâché for so long that I don't measure ingredients anymore.  The amounts would change depending on the size of whatever I was working on at the moment.  My basic method of making a basic paper mâché slurry would be to put flour into a container and add water a little at a time and stirring between additions.  I stir until the lumps have disappeared and the mixture is a smooth paste.  For this mixture, I modified the approach a little bit.

I mixed the flour with water only until it formed a stiff, slimy dough.  I wanted the action between the flour and the water to start setting up the gluten reaction.  Then, I added about an equal amount of the thin set mortar admix to the dough.  I kept adding the admix a little at a time and stirring between additions until the mixture formed a smooth, thick slurry.  If you have worked with paper mâché for a while, you will recognize the appropriate texture of the mix.  If you haven't the general rule of thumb is that if it is hard to spread and forms lumps, it is too dry.  Add more water (or admix in this case)  If the paper gets overly soaked and does not stick well it needs more flour. 

For the paper part, I used torn strips of newspaper.  I spread the paper mâché mixture on the strips of paper with a disposable foam brush.  I like this method because it is less messy than dipping the strips in the mixture.  Also, if there are small flour lumps, I can brush them off the strip easily.  That means fewer lumps on your project, which means less sanding.  (If you are inclined to sand that is.)  I add a single layer of paper mâché and let it dry overnight before adding the next layer.  If you do multiple layers, there is more potential for mold to develop.  This takes longer than doing multiple layers, but overall I have found it more successful than adding more layers at one time.

Future Blog Posts:  I have been working on another pumpkin and I will have photos of the new one in about a week.  I may post one other post in between on another subject (to be determined).  I am trying to get back into posting twice a week, but there is not much to write about when stuck at home trying to wait out the Covid-19.  However, a few humorous things have occurred that may be worth writing about just to keep things from being so quiet between posts.