Made by Paul R Bareis
I was inspired by an eroded whelk shell that I found in Puerto Rico. I tried 1st to make it in porcelain clay, but no luck. I then tried aluminum wire mesh, but it wouldn’t support the form. I then discovered ‘Woodlands Shaper Sheet‘ on Amazon. It’s like very thick aluminum foil with a felt-like backing. I somewhat crumpled it, as the triangular facets formed are stronger than a smooth surface. To figure out the form of the whelk shell, I made a half-circle out of card stock and covered it with aluminum foil, which I then twisted into a spiral model.
I initially supported the shaper sheet with some copper tubing, which I was going to run LED lights through, but then I removed them because they broke up the lines of the form. With an initial layer of Jonni’s “Best Paper Mache Recipe“, the sculpt easily held its shape without additional supports. (Note: I luved working with this paper mache clay! It’s like a very plastic clay, that didn’t stick to or dry out my hands and even smelled nice! 🙂 I applied two coats of paper mache clay to the entire sculpt. I left the outside rough, and sanded the inside and even applied a coat of joint compound to make it even smoother. I then sanded the joint compound with very fine sandpaper. The resulting sculpture was both light and very strong! Finally, I hired a painter friend to apply the patina.
The ‘beach’ was made from resin-infused sand, in which I implanted sea glass, fishing floats and driftwood.The glass items are lit from below with LED lights. The faux driftwood stand was created by: taking old branches from an apple tree, stripping off the bark, rounding the edges with a sander and finally painting them with a very diluted gray paint mixture.
By the way, I choose the title “Moana” because in Polynesian culture, it symbolizes the ocean’s vital role in life, connecting all islands and peoples, and representing a spiritual guide. The ocean setting in the cover picture was supplied by AI, as traveling down to Puerto Rico with the completed sculpture would have been problematic! 🙂
Paul, thank you so much for showing us your sculpture, and telling us how you made it. I’ve used a lot of aluminum foil in my armatures, but this is the first time I’ve heard about the Woodlands Shaper Sheet. I just ordered some, because it looks like it would be helpful for a lot of different types of sculptures. Thanks again – great post! 🙂