Hi Everyone,
I’m a day late with this newsletter – maybe it’s because I got distracted by a bucket full of vampire skulls. (Or maybe I just forgot what day I promised to send the newsletter out. That sounds a little more plausible, doesn’t it? 🙂 )
This Halloween Vampire Skull bucket is easy to make, with plaster cloth over a fast clay sculpture. Tiny LED lights shine though the eye sockets, and the skulls have a nice bone-like clatter when you shake them. If you know a kid who will be trick-or-treating this year, they might like one of these. Or – they might think it’s just plain silly. 🙂
DIY Vampire Skull BucketI also spent some time this week looking for some ideas for making figure sculptures with paper mache. As I searched Google, a lot of the results that came up were already on UltimatePaperMache.com – like Debbie’s figure sculpting tutorial, and Michael’s life-sized figure armature made with duct tape. But I found some ideas online that I’d never seen before:
Figure Tutorial at Silver Creek Art
I really enjoy the simplicity of these little figures. Unfortunately, the video on the Silver Creek Art website only shows us a way to make a figure armature with a toilet paper roll (they want students to be inventive and come up with their own ideas). Still, with some wire, a bit of crumpled foil, and some paper mache clay, we could make these swimmers. Painting all those diamonds on the swimsuits would take some time, though.
Large, realistic paper mache sculptures…
Diane Louise van der Zanden’s figure sculptures are often quite large, and she offers a number of tutorials on her YouTube channel. In this video, she shows us a leg that will be part of a large sculpture, and how she made it with a mold.
It’s worth visiting her website, just to drool over her art studio. 🙂
A few odds and ends …
Learn paper mache sculpture with Iria – this would be so much fun! A trip to Spain, a stay in the artist’s home, while learning her techniques. Her website says “Her creative world is inspired by the magic of “Wunderkammer” and writings by Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain and Jules Verne.” What a great vacation idea…
The art of papier-mâché in Lecce – an interesting article on Google Arts and Culture, well worth the time to read.
Next week I should have the pattern for my new jaguar/leopard mask finished. Those crazy vampire skulls slowed me down this week, but the big cat’s pattern is already done, and now I just have to make the videos and instructions. To get ready for painting those leopard spots, I’ll be watching some more videos on the Studio Wildlife YouTube channel this week. (I have a really fun job. 🙂 )
Remember to visit the Daily Sculptors page and look at all the amazing projects that have been uploaded since the last time you were there.
Have a wonderful weekend!
