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Wow – yesterday “Skwirl” sent us her submission for the Halloween Mask Party. Not a mask, certainly, but definitely creepy! What an imagination! In a comment Skwirl sent in recently, she called this creature a “paper mache pumpkin scorpion thingy.” It now has an official name – Scorpiumpkin. (You can see more of that deadly tail in the photo down below.)
I’ll let Skwirl tell you more:
Well I’m not totally done with him but all that’s left is the varnish so close enough! I had no idea it would take me this long.
I started off with a pumpkin shape using the instructions on Scott Stoll’s (Stolloween) site and then it just evolved into this.
The armature for the appendages is mostly coat hangers, crumpled newspaper and masking tape and the pumpkin body is just a plastic bag filled with crumpled paper.
It was covered with 3-4 layers of paper strips, and then covered with paper clay (Scott’s recipe) and details added.
The teeth and the stinger were made of Creative Paperclay because of it’s smoothness and sandability.
He was a lot more work than I anticipated, but the results are totally worth it! I feel like a proud mama!
Skwirl estimates the final cost to be somewhere between $25 and $50. And well worth every penny, I’d say.
Thanks, Skwirl, for sharing your Scorpiumpkin! What a nice Halloween treat!
Amazing!!!! Love the Scorpiumpkin!
“Unity” is finally finished! There are inspirational words decoupaged on her base under the “web” but you can’t see it in this picture. Going to work on her sister “Trinity” this weekend.
[img]http://ultimatepapermache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/unity4.jpg[/img]
Yes, mostly wire and newspaper. Originally she was going to be standing on tippy-toe, so I took a long wire, wrapped it around a rock, threw it in a plastic container, and filled it with plaster for the base which you can’t see in the picture. Then made the round shape that she is standing on with mache strips on a balloon, but it wasn’t stable enough, so I squirted expanding foam into the hollow ball. She was still not stable enough so that is when I added the “roots” to her arms and legs. I think I finally figured out how to paint her so I am very excited about that!
Love the new piece. What did you use for armature? Newspaper? Wire? Really like the shapes and dynamics of the pose.
Whoa! That’s one great and original work of art! I love it!
THANK-YOU!!!
Is the varnish used to make it waterproof so that it can be left outside?
Well I use indoor outdoor water based polyurethane, but I don’t think I would leave it outside. I worked way too hard to take that chance lol.
On a TOTALLY different note, here is another sculpture I’ve been working on. Her name is “Unity”. She’s not done yet, but hoping she will be soon! And then her sister “Trinity” will be close behind!
Bravo! I am a huge Stolloween fan, and that is a great and imaginative piece! Scott would be proud. Have you shown it to him?
Hi Jaybo!
Yes I have! I posted on his Facebook page. He’s seen it through a few of the earlier stages, and left very encouraging comments!
Yeh, he’s awesome!
Oh my golly! That is a s-c-a-r-y monster! And very realistic. If it were a real species, that is! Beautiful work!
Thank-you so much Maggie! I think it would look really cool with a bunch of little scopiumpkin babies running all around it!
I would also like to add that the only reason it cost that much was because I had to buy the huge block of cellulose insulation, a bunch of masking tape, paint and varnish. So the next one (not that I will ever make another of these lol) will not cost a dime! I barely put a dent in that insulation!
What was the cellulose insulation for?
Hi Lisa,
It was for the clay recipe on the Stolloween website.
Absolutely fantastic work, creative and imaginative.
Thank-you Marvin!!
Wow! Considering that I’ve been fighting bark scorpions for over a month, and learned recently that scorpions are related to spiders, this is the stuff nightmares can use for a springboard — great Halloween sculpting!
patch
Thanks patch!! I’ve got the varnish on him now and he looks even creepier all wet and slimy looking lol