Can you make some larger pieces - dogs, cows etc.? ..The gallery owner said.. "Yes, no problem!", I replied!
I had a few things to work out first though - it's all very well making small pieces in paper mache, but large is a whole different kettle of fish! For a start - how best to make the armature? It's going to have to be strong to support all that extra weight. And then, how fast can I make something that's big? - I need to be able to make more than one a year..? And don't forget how to make them light enough? - I don't want myself or anyone else to run up sizeable bill with the osteopath as a result of moving my sculpture around! I had made some oversize pieces before which, although successful had resulted in extravagant skeletons underneath and complex shipping operations to get them into place, all of which needed refining.
In the spirit of "it's not what you do, it's the way that you do it", I have had my thinking cap on over recent months as well as indulged in a little research and come up with a couple of methods of making large, strong, lightweight and (fingers crossed) weather proof paper mache sculpture - see how my sheep is getting on over on my "protect your paper mache from precipitation" post.
The Pointer dog that I am making at the moment is a bit of a hybrid of techniques - you can watch some work in progress in the video below (it also has a cat in it). If you would like to know definitively how I am making this work and learn how to make similar things yourself I offer mentoring in my Ministry of Mixed Media membership or if you don't fancy that I have added a few "fun freebies" to my website for you to try at home and have lots to see on my social media platforms so be sure not to miss out and give me a follow!
