Made by Kris Pratt
Was trying to choose a gift to make for my mother-in-law. She loves African art and sculpture, so I was thinking about Jonni’s Giraffe pattern, but remembered that my mother-in-law already has a big giraffe statue in her house. Then I was thinking about Jonni’s elephant pattern but realized I wouldn’t have enough time to complete a large project. So I just came to UltimatePaperMache.com and was browsing through all of the amazing projects here. I saw William and was like that’s perfect! I had watched the “William the Egyptian Hippo” videos long ago so I was aware of the hippo but had forgotten about it. ‘Egyptian’ art is very different from ‘African’ art, but Egypt and Hippos are in Africa so it still works for my gift idea. Also thought it was nice that its based on an actual artifact. I made it following Jonni’s YouTube videos. Lots of fun to make. I also printed out the information on ‘William’ from the MET website and made a little info booklet that I’m going to include with it so my mother-in-law will know what it is based on, and not think its just a random blue hippo(which really would be fine too).
Once again, just want to say how much I love all of the wonderful projects, ideas, and recipes on here, has literally changed my life.


This is a beautiful hippo. I love the simplicity and the paint job. Congrats
This is so cool! I bet your mother in law is very happy with your hippo.
So nice to see how Jonni’s work effects us all.
A big thank you for you and Jonni!
I’m with Eileen. That is a beautiful hippo. Jonni has changed many of our lives. Thanks.
She is going to love it! Way to make brownie points with the mother-in-law! No. really, you did a stellar job and what a nice touch to make up the booklet. Good going! And by the way, Jonni and her website has changed the lives of many of us, welcome to the club!
Gave it to her today, and yes she did love it. Thanks!
Wow! He’s really nice, your mother-in-law will love him! He turned out really smooth, did you use the air-dry clay for that or something else?
I used Jonni’s technique of using a thin layer of the drywall joint compound to smooth it out, also made a blue gesso to top that.