Made by Holly Halter
I just made my first sculpture with Jonni’s paper mache clay. I made the body of clay. The legs and tail are reinforced with electrical wire. I will be making the crown and birds out of polymer clay and maybe the eyes. I plan to paint the face to look semi-realistic. I pressed lace into the body. I am going to make big paws out of plumber’s putty. Rustic is the look I am after. I am loving how the paper mache clay looks like porcelain. This is not close to being finished.
My paper mache clay was so smooshy no matter how much I kneaded it into extra flour. I am wondering if I could put the toilet paper in the Elmer’s glue first instead of water, then add the joint compound and flour and mix it well. For the body, I made slabs and rolled over them with canvas fabric which helped to absorb some of the moisture.
I like where this sculpture is going. I am wondering if you didn’t squish enough water out of your toilet paper before adding the other ingredients. I have never had it be too watery following Jonni’s recipe.
Hi Holly. What an interesting sculptures! I hope you’ll show us how they all turn out when they’re done.
Did you try using the paper mache clay recipe with the gram measurements and a scale? It sounds like you may have started out with too much water. The original recipe is never as stiff as the air dry clay, though. You might want to try that recipe next time.
And about your actual question, I don’t know what would happen if you used the glue instead of the water to soak the paper. That’s an idea that never occurred to me. If you try it, please let us know if it worked! 🙂