Paper Mâché Carousel Ram - Part 2 - Taking it from Flat to Three dimensional

This is one of those times that I started crafting and did not stop to take a critical photo.  I will include a photo of a different carousel animal to show the part I missed taking a picture of for this animal.  Actually, I missed a couple of shots.  

This photo is where I left off last time on the blog.  I had cut out four copies of my figure.  Two of the figures have toothpicks glued to them with hot glue to strengthen the flimsy card stock.  I was not going for an anatomically correct skeleton, obviously.

This second photo shows where I have covered one of the figures that had the toothpicks glued on covered by one of the figures without the toothpicks.  These pieces were carefully matched up to make it even and then hot glued one section at a time make sure the sides remained even all around.  Now the toothpicks are no longer visible and actually support both sides of the cardstock figures.  After that, I taped over the cardboard figures with masking tape.  The tape will offer a barrier so that the cardstock will not become soggy.

I used small pieces of corrugated cardboard strips to act as spacers between the two ram figures.  If you read the last post on this, you may remember that there was some problem with the book on carousel animals that I had purchased.  The instructions for the carousel goat were missing.  So, I just had to wing it to figure out what size these strips should be.

This is a picture of the spacers as I placed them on one of the carousel horses.  Each piece of cardboard is hot glued onto place.  Then the second piece of the figure was glued down on top of the spacers.  It sounds easy enough, but it takes more time than you would think to figure out where these spacers should be placed to give enough support without being in the way of upcoming work and making sure the pieces remain even. Remember that sooner or later, the pole that will hold up the animal will need to be placed at a future point in the project.

Now, back to the Ram.  After the spacers are in place, I used a strip of an old file folder to cover the open areas along the front, back, top and bottom of the carousel animal.  

I have found that the least aggravating way to get this done was to make the strip a little wider than the area it was to cover, making sure that the edges extended over both sides of the animal.  I went along the support posts hot glueing each one to the file folder strip.  

When gluing the strip was completed, I used a sharp craft knife and followed along the edge of the animal to cut off any excess so that the file folder sits flush with the edges.  There are a few gaps especially around some of the curves.  That is okay.  They will later be covered with tape.  The upper and lower areas of the legs are not built up at this point.  That will be done later.

This picture shows the animal from the rear view.  I have also added the base for the Ram's horns and the tail.  In the top photo you can see the Ram's tail as part of the initial outline.  It was cut off when I made the figures because a tail on each side of the animal would have been wrong.  After the Ram was taped, I added a tail using bits of carboard, hot glue, and tape.  

The horns are not easy to see in the photos, but they are made from small pieces of a chenille stem.  With twenty-twenty hindsight, I should have used something else.  It worked, and it fulfilled my need for something that had a little bit of bulk, but it was a little too flimsy.  

It was hard to keep the horns from bending out of place while I was trying to cover it with paper mâché.  Since the animal is so small, it was difficult to wrap the strips around the horn.  Any movement to the horns caused the chenille to detach from the head.  The weight of the paper mâché was also a factor. It is heavy compared to the strength of the chenille stem.  I had to go back in a couple of times with more hot glue to keep them on.  They still seem a little fragile.  I will need to put more paper mâché on the base of the horns to keep them from falling off the animal.  

If I were to make the horns over again, I would probably have used a sturdier piece of wire.  Also, instead of just gluing the wire to the head, I probably would drill a hole through the head, inserted a wire, and glued it into place.  Then I would have bent the horns to their proper shape.  It might have saved some time and trouble.  

In the long run, things worked out okay with the horns.  Could I have done it better?  Maybe.  It is also important to remember that the way one person works is not going to be the same as another person would do it.  This could be from materials available or how much of a mess one can deal with on any particular project.  My motto is "Use what you have."

From the picture on the left, you can see that the Ram's nose is very square.  That was not intentional but caused by the straight edge of the support pieces.  Next week in my blog post I will show how I dealt with this issue.  

Beginning to Create the Next Carousel Animal - A Ram

 Regular readers know that I have been working on two long-term projects at once.  This helps me to from getting burned out on either project.  Making the animals for the carousel in paper mâché is somewhat repetitive in some segments so I need to break it up.  I had reached a good stopping point on the Green Man Pumpkin Project, and now I am ready to work on the next paper mâché animal on the carousel project.  This animal is going to be a Ram.  

This is my second carousel.  The first one was very small.  The base of the carousel was only about six inches in diameter.  The animals were only a couple on inches in length.  This time I am trying to make a carousel where the animals are about four to six inches long.  I have not worked out the size for the base yet.  I will have to see what works with the animals I am making.  Why work so small?  The main answer is that a carousel can take up a significant amount of space.  Very few people have the space for a large craft item these days.  I certainly don't. My house is already covered with many of my creations.  I keep them until I grow tired of them, then they are sold, but I really need to do more about getting them out the door.

So on with the first session of the Ram.  I debated about the horns on the animal.  Some goats have small horns, others have great curling horns, and yet others have longer straight horns.  I finally decided on curling ram horns, but I am going to leave working on the horns for later in the project and just have small jutting horns on the head for proper placement.  The horns would be in the way during much of the project.

First, I needed a pattern, and I turned to my book on carving carousel animals.  That is when things got a

little weird.  The table of contents said there was a pattern, but that part of the book seemed to have been omitted.  I looked in my other book on carving carousel animals and it had a goat pattern.  I decided to use that as a starting point.  I modified the pattern for the legs.  I turned it from walking to having all four legs off the ground as if it were leaping.  I also modified the face area.  The pattern had an open mouth.  It was changed to a closed mouth. Making those teeth would have been difficult.  I am working so small that it would be too hard to do that in paper mâché.

Once the pattern modifications were complete, I transferred the pattern to some cardstock.  You don't have to use cardstock, it could be a cereal box, file folder, or some other type of thin cardboard.  I just happen to have an abundance of blue cardstock.  

I cut out four pieces of the pattern.  Two of the pieces have toothpicks glued to it with hot glue to make the cardstock a little less flexible.  Then the other two pieces were placed on top of the pieces to cover the toothpicks.  I used hot glue, working on small sections at a time and making sure that all of the pieces were aligned properly.

Today I am in a real time crunch.  I will post more about how the animal becomes three dimensional in the post next week.  

  

Green Man Pumpkin - Part 8 - Something I Forgot in Last Post

 I had planned to start blogging on my other project today, but I realized that I had missed something on the last post.  So, a brief post on that today.  

When I made the mask, I covered the chin area only a short way below the face.  If I had made the mask go all the way to the chin, it would have been more difficult to remove the mask from the face mold.  Undercuts on molds are generally very difficult and may have cause the mask to break.  It could have been repaired easily enough, but why make extra work?  

So, when I attached the face to the pumpkin, there was a gap between the chin and the pumpkin.  I fixed this by using some flexible cardboard cut from a file folder to fill the gap.  (Photos below). The carboard was covered with tape and is now ready for layers of paper mâché with the rest of the pumpkin.  

This photo shows the mask from the underside where there is a significant gap between the pumpkin and the face.

Note that the inside of the face has already been primed and painted prior to attaching to the pumpkin.

Green Man Pumpkin - Part 7 - Face Now Mounted on Pumpkin

 I am adding the photo of the face mounted to the pumpkin first, because I know that is what everyone is waiting to see.    I put a battery-operated light source inside, so you could see the eyes better.

However, there was a lot of prep work before the project got to this point.  I will backtrack so that you can see all of the steps that came between there and the current photo.

In the last blog post I had written about mounting the eyes onto the face.  The next step was to add some eye lids so that the eyes did not have a wide-eyed open stare.  I also reverse painted the areas of hot glue with a thin, translucent coat of white paint to mimic the whites of the eyes.  Painting the glue cuts some of the light that was shining through and gives the eyes a more natural look.  

Before attaching the face, I painted the interior of the pumpkin, the exterior ridge, and the back of the pumpkin's face.  First, I painted the pumpkin's parts with two coats of Gesso.  Then it was painted with two coats of black acrylic paint.  I chose Mars Black.  It dried to a shiny surface which will help reflect light.  Sometimes I paint the insides of pumpkins a metallic gold.  The metallic gold reflects a lot more light than the black.  However, since this pumpkin is planned to be an indoor decoration, and its theme is mostly about the exterior of the face, I chose to go with the less expensive paint.  

This is the photo of the painted interior of the pumpkin. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of the back of the pumpkin's face.  You can see that I also painted the ridge on the exterior of the pumpkin where the face will sit.  This will not be seen when the pumpkin is completed.  It was mainly painted to make sure that even the areas that will not be seen have some coverage to prevent moisture penetration in the future.

After all the black areas were painted and allowed to dry, they all received two coats of an exterior acrylic sealer.  I used a soft brush for that so that I could get into any little nooks and crannies.  This may have been a step that did not need to be taken considering that it will be an indoor project, but I try to build my projects so that they will last a long time.

With everything dry, it was time to add the face.   Before doing anything with glue, I held the face on the pumpkin and made sure that it was on straight and not crooked.  Then I marked some reference lines on the pumpkin and face with a Sharpie marker so that I would be able to get the face back to the same position when adding the glue.

I began mounting the face by putting dots of hot glue at the top, and center sides of the face.  The black exterior ridge acts as a small shelf for the face to sit upon.  I held the three dots of hot glue until they were cool enough to hold the head in place.  As the face is not completely flush with the pumpkin, I added some hot glue to any areas that did not meet the pumpkin to give some added support.  

After the hot glue, I covered the seam between the pumpkin and face with some masking tape.  The seam looked a little rough, so I covered the seam with a small one fourth inch wide piece of cardboard from an old file folder.  The cardboard was covered with another layer of tape.  (Photo below on right.)  

At this point, I am ready to start working on the exterior of the pumpkin.  This is a good stopping point for this segment of the project for this blog post.

Regular reader may remember that I am currently working on two projects at the same time.  I am also working on a carousel with the animal figures made of paper mâché.  To keep from getting stale on either project, I have been switching back and forth between projects.  The next few blog posts will be on making a Ram or some type of mountain goat for the carousel.  After that, I will be back to blogging on the Green Man Pumpkin and showing how I made and attached the leaves.

Check back next week for the new post.

Green Man Pumpkin - Part 6 Painting and Mounting the Eyes - Part 6

 I have been working on the pumpkin quite a bit, but paper mâché is not a quick process.  I added the final layers of paper mâché to the inside of the pumpkin and around the large opening for the face and the opening for the light at the bottom.  I also added some of the last layers of paper mâché to the face.  

After all that, it was time to start reverse painting the eyes.  I wish I were better at it, but I think there is a lot of room for improvement.  Anyway, the first photo is the eyes viewed from the front.  The back of the eyes look quite a bit different.  

I will go into how I painted these eyes, but I suggest you look online at other people's online tutorials.  I found a few different methods for what materials to use and how to paint the eyes.  Some methods use acrylic paints and others used multiple colors of fingernail polish.  I chose to use acrylic paints as I had them in stock.  Using multiple colors of fingernail polish would have added about twenty or more dollars to the project.  

These eyes were painted on glass cabochons.  Cabochons are domed glass circles.  You can find them at most craft and scrap booking stores or websites.  However, I did not use those, I used the inexpensive ones that you can find in the home decorator sections of many department stores and dollar stores.  These cabochons are not perfectly round, but they work pretty well.  You just have to sort through them to find two similarly shaped ones.  Using the less perfect ones is a saving of several dollars.  

The domed glass surface reflects the light much like a human eye.  I did not have to paint in the highlights.  The bright hot spots are just reflections off the glass.  

This picture shows the flat back side of the eye where the painting takes place.  The first thing to paint in is the pupil.  Getting the pupil in the center of the eye is the most difficult part.  Not only do the pupils need to be in the correct place, but they also need to be the same size.  This is not easy for me, especially if you are working with smaller eyes.  I found the small, rounded surfaces hard to hold.

I tried a method numerous times that I saw on the internet.  It seemed to work for larger eyes, but did not work as well for smaller ones.  One way was to put a drop of black paint on the center back of one eye, and then gently touch the back of the other eye to it to create the pupil on the other eye.  Theoretically that works and alleviates the problem of trying to get the pupil in the same spot.  In practice, it ended up with me, my work area, and the glass cabochon smeared with black paint.  I gave up on that.  The failing may be with my stiff fingers rather than the method, but it is not as easy as it may seem.

I found the center for the pupil by using some graph paper.  I find the point on the graph paper that I want to be my center.  I put the cabochon on the paper and line it up so that the center sits on the marked point.  When properly aligned, I trace around the cabochon and cut out the paper and place it on the back of the eye. Using carbon paper, I transfer the mark to the eye.  

I dipped the flat bottom of a wooden skewer in black paint.  Before touching the eye, the skewer is pressed against a paper towel to remove most of the paint.  Then I lightly touch it down on the marked center.  The mark will be faint, but enough to determine the circle.  After that, I paint the pupil in that circle with a small detail brush.  

The next step is to paint in the black ring that indicates the boundaries of the iris.  I have found that you cannot just paint the flat back of the eye for this.  For it to be visible on the other side, you have to paint a small amount on the side of the cabochon.  Let the paint dry before continuing on with painting the iris.  

After the black paint is dry, I mixed Cad Yellow and Hunter Green for the yellow-green color surrounding the pupil.  The color is painted in a series of irregular marks.  The green part of the pupil is solid Hunter Green.  I painted the green while the yellow was still wet, blending in and out of the yellow.  

Once all the paint was dry, I painted the entire back of the eye with some exterior satin acrylic sealer.   The paint really needs the sealer.  It is a very thin coat and tends to scratch off easily.  Once the sealer is dry, it is time to mount the eyes.  The eye holes were initially cut larger than the eye.  This is because 

that once the holes are cut, they need to be covered with more layers of paper mâché over the raw edges.  This is not an exact science.  Sometimes I may have to make adjustments to the size of the eyes and sometimes have to carve out some of the layers of paper mâché with a craft knife.  It can take a while to get it like you want it.  

Once the eye holes are right, I mount the eye to the back of the eye hole.  Once the eye is positioned like I want it, I use a bit of blue painter's tape on the front of the eye to hold it in place.  Next, flip the mask over and use hot glue around the eye to glue it into place.  When the glue has cooled, remove the tape from the front of the eyes.  

This is as far as I have gone on this project so far.  I have not yet had time to add the lips and paint the inside of the pumpkin and the back of the mask, which is the next step.  It is a holiday weekend here, so I don't think I will get it done until after Monday.  But next week's post should show how I mount the mask to the pumpkin.

I hope you will check back next week to see the progress.

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.

Green Man Pumpkin - Part 4- Creating the Face

 Last week when I left off blogging, I had left off with showing the cutout where the face will be placed.  There was also a cutout on the bottom for a placement of a battery candle

or light to illuminate the pumpkin.  (I should not have to say this, but for everyone's safety, I will.  Do not use an open flame on an object made from paper.)  Today, I will be blogging about how the face is created.  

I did not want to have a regular pumpkin face because this is supposed to be an anthropomorphic pumpkin.  I want the face to resemble a human face as much as I can make it.  Once the face is made it will be covered with leaves.  The face and leaves will also be made from paper mâché.  The plan is for the pumpkin to be surrounded by leaves, fruits, nuts, and vegetable that would be part of an autumn harvest.

To recap from last week: the pumpkin initially had two circles drawn on it.  The larger outer circle marks the general placement for the face.  The inner circle was the cutting line.  This gives me about half an inch to hot glue the face to the pumpkin.  

To make the face, I started with a foam head that is available in just about any craft store or online.  I sketched out the area I planned to use for the face and covered it with a layer of masking tape.  

The nose is not very prominent on this foam mold, and layers of paper mâché tent to flatten the features.  During the time I was adding the tape, I also used some extra tape and cardboard to enhance the nose and give the area a little bit more prominence.  Also, once the face is covered with the paper mâché leaves, it will need a little extra clearance to be visible under the leaves.  

I did not want to over emphasize the lips very much because I may want to change the shape of the mouth's expression.  I just needed to have an idea of where it went for proper placement.  

Once I had it more or less built up, I covered the whole head with a product called Press and Seal a food storage product found in the grocery aisle.  This waterproofs the head so I can save it for multiple uses.  Also, the paper mâché will not stick to the Press and Seal and can be removed from the head easily.

After that, I added multiple layers of paper mâché on the area covered by masking tape.  In the photo on the right, you can see some of the black Sharpie line that I sketched onto the head to define the area I am using as a face.

The face was covered with six layers of paper mâché.  I only put on one layer at a time and allow it to dry before adding the next layer to help prevent mold.  

It is helpful to have a small sized aluminum pan or baking dish that the head will fit into fairly snuggly.  The head is rounded and wants to roll back and forth.  Placing the head in a snug pan helps to hold it in place when I add the paper mâché.  This saves time and aggravation.  If you don't have a pan of the right size, you would put some books in a plastic trash bags and place on each side of the head to brace it in place.  I am always in favor of using what you have rather than going out to buy something special.

Once all of the layers of paper mâché are dry, I pull the mask off the face mold.  The chin has a bit of an overhang and is a little difficult to get that part off the mold.  However, the face still has a little bit of flex to it and it will come off with a little persuasion.  

I found that the nose was still not large enough to accommodate a couple of layers of leaves, so I increased its height using some cardboard and tape.  All of this will need to be covered with layers of paper mâché.  That is still to come.  I would like to get to a point where everything is ready for the final layers of paper 
mâché before I get started with that. 

I made my first attempt at drawing on the eyes and mouth in this photo.  It needs some work. This is not going to be the final shape. It is very difficult to find the proper placement of the eyes.  Since the paper is not running in straight lines, even if you get the eyes in the proper place the optical illusion created by the disjointed lines makes them look wrong against the background.  

I plan for this face to have green painted glass eyes.  I will blog more on that segment when I get that far.  

I have some trouble getting my eyes to look the same size and shape.  My best recommendation for this is to get one eye as you want it, then trace around it and transfer the image to the other side.  It is important to cut the holes for the features larger than you want them to be.  Layer of paper mâché will decrease the size of the openings.

The mouth Is a little difficult as well. Not only do I have to plan for the shape of the lips, but I have to make room for some of the leaves that will be on the face as well.  

I cut out the features using a sharp craft knife.  The features have to be cut oversized because each cut edge will have layers of tape and paper mâché on top of it.  Before applying the tape, I put some white glue on my fingers and massage the glue into the cut edges.  The layers of paper mâché tend to want to fan out slightly in the cut area.  The paste and tape will help keep the layers from separating as much.

That is about it for today's blog.  Next week I hope to be blogging about painting the eyes and how they are mounted to the face. Or at least, have the rest of the features covered with their last layers of paper mâché.  Spring is here, and all the extra outdoor activities are eating into my crafting time.  After that, the blog will be about how to mount the face to the pumpkin.

I know some readers are wondering what is happening with my paper mâché carousel animals.  I am trying to work each project to a reasonable stopping point before switching back to the other project.  Once the face is attached to the green man, I will be transferring back to the carousel project.  

Check back next week for a new post.