My student’s ultimate paper mâché sculptures

4 thoughts on “My student’s ultimate paper mâché sculptures”

1. Janice, I’m jealous! I want to be your student! That’s what I say when I admire creations like these. These are wonderful. I love the turtle. I tried one five years ago and haven’t gone back there. Really nice.

   The koi is exceptional. As I’ve said a million times, we had a 9000 gallon koi pond and 63 large koi in it (until winter hit -50). The painting on this fish is the best. Thank you very much. Koi have such personalities. Very moved by this one.

   Reply

2. Fabulous sculptures! Your students should be proud of their work, as should their teacher! The crack is perplexing, but it should easily be repaired with a bit more clay. I would put a small amount of glue/water mix on the crack first, then apply the clay, let dry and repair the paint job.. it would be a shame that the crack would ruin this splendid sculpture. How old are your students?

   Reply

3. Hi Janice. Your student’s work is really nice – but the crack is perplexing. I’ve never seen anything like that, except when I use the air dry clay recipe and didn’t make sure the new pieces of clay were melded completely with the old ones. The clay shrinks a little when it dries, and that caused the seams to pull apart. I think your student is using the original paper mache clay recipe, though, and it sticks to itself really well so that shouldn’t be a problem.

   What kind of armature was used under the paper mache clay? If it was so hard that it couldn’t shrink a little when the clay was drying, that could cause the crack. Or, if the paper mache was applied thickly, that might cause it.

   I’m hoping one of my readers has a better explanation – and a way to keep it from happening again! Anyone??

   Reply

   • I agree with paper mache being applied too thickly and where it dried might have been too warm. It is any easy fix though~ Nicely done!

     Reply