Hello,
My name is Lisa,I'm 33 years of age and have some experience in paper mache. For those of you who struggle with certain areas I hope that my experience will help with your own challenges. I have been working with paper mache for nearly 20 years. Most of my challenges in this medium have overcome me,but I have learned by experimenting that the impossible can become the possible.
Let me share with you readers of my blog some things that i've learned and willing to share. Let's begin with the newspaper strips themselves. Nobody who works with paper mache can withstand it when their hard work dries hard only to find WRINKLES. Yes, I said wrinkles. This occurs when there is too much moisture in the strips and also from bending them around sharp corners. SOLUTION: Less wrinkles will be formed when the artist,such as myself, crumbles the paper strip before adhereing the glue. The wrinkles are much easier to iron out when the strips are crinkley. Then I use a small tool to spread on the glue,since I do not like to get my hands dirty much on this medium. No it isn't a paintbrush. too much bristle. No. I use a balloon. First, I blow the balloon up to stretch it out. I do not tie it, but let the air out. I stretch the neck and stuff the balloon with small bits of really small papers until it is almost the size of a golfball. .Now I tie it off. I cut 2 or 3 slits in the base of the neck of the balloon. This allows any air to escape. the balloon is then dipped in the paste and represents a brush to apply paste. I call this a paper mache paste applicator. When I'm done with a session,I simply take a damp rag or paper towel and wipe it off until the next session. Sounds stupid,but you won't believe the results. You won't believe how well it applies the paste. it's a smooth object and does well. It also smooths out most of the unwanted wrinkles.
For those of you who are looking for a FUR affect such as a fluffy bunny,or a cute kitten.,allow me to to introduce to you a technique that I invented myself. Be prepapred to get messy on this one. You will need (depending on the size of your project) one or 2 bags of cotton balls,some scissors, and a pretty good amount of paste.Take a cotton ball and very carefully unravel the entire thing until you have a very long strip of cotton. The largest cotton balls are best for this project. Cut the cotton until you have 3 or 4 small stips of cotton. Take the first piece and dip it in your paste and spread all over the entire strip. place on your project and spread the piece out as much as you can. repeat this step until your entire project is covered in cotton pieces. No,it will not be soft when dried,but will look like it has fur.
This is it for now until I can think of anything else to come up with.
