The Papier Boy: Paper Mache Nonsense

New Papier Boy Site

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:41:55 GMT

I am abandoning this site and creating a new one. I am doing my best to transfer much of the content of this site to the new site.

The reason I am doing this is because I have so many issues with Windows Live Spaces. When I try to log-in, about 80-90% of the time, I am greeted with an error message rather than the administration console. My frustration has peaked.

I am therefore going to use Blogspot instead. I have played around with it a little and I kindof like some aspects of it better anyway. So I invite you to visit the new site: http://thepapierboy.blogspot.com/

New Papier Boy Site

The Papier Boy 360

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 20:05:12 GMT

I made a li'l video of some of my paper sculptures. It is a little grainy and unclear, just like the Zapruder film. And you can't really see who shot who. But it is short and has some nice music so you might like it.

You can watch it by clicking here: THE PAPIER BOY 360

Them bones...

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:06:55 GMT

I completed my Farah Fossil sculpture the other day. It turned out OK. It took a really long time because it has so many pieces. All together, there are 139 separate bones:

26 vertbrae

14 teeth

1 Mandible

1 Cranium

2 Scapula

10 Ribs

2 Femur

2 Fibula

2 Tibia

22 Foot/ankle bones

26 Hands and Wrist

24 Pigtail bones

1 Pelvis

2 Humerus

2 Radius

2 Ulna

I started by making a base and spine shape out of MDF and mounting the spine-shape to the base with two dowels. Each vertebrae was made from foam and afixed to the MDF spine-shape. Then the ribs (cardboard and wire) were added. This was all covered with paper towels and glue. The skull is a large newspaper ball. Each bone was created using either rolled-up newspaper, cardboard, or Model Magic clay. Some bones, like the long bones, are glued in place. Others, are held together by wire.

The whole thing was covered with paper towels, primed with gesso, painted with acrylics and aged with dark brown paint shot through an airbrush.

Farah Fossil Progress

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:19:55 GMT

I am still working on my skeleton sculpture. So far, I have the spine, tail, ribs, base, scapula, and pelvis done and painted. The head, legs, arms, and feet are constructed and primed but they still need to be painted. There are a few bones that I haven't even started making yet, like the hands, teeth, pigtails, kneecaps, and parts of the legs and arms. I was waiting to get the base and spine done so that I can tell how long some of these bones need to be. I cannot estimate it until certain parts are in position. This is counter-intuitive and is making me uncomfortable. This is taking a very long time.

Skeletal Work

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 00:33:55 GMT

Although I had swore off Garbage Pail Kids for a while, I started working on a sculpture based upon Garbage Pail Kids cards # 88a & 88b, Dinah Saur and Farah Fossil, respectively. I started by creating a base out of MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard). MDF is half the price of plywood. It has some pros and cons. But for this type of thing it is perfect. The base is simply two concentric rectangles glued together. I made them deliberately small so that the finished skeleton looks larger in scale. The spine is also made of MDF. This is covered in pieces of left-over foam that I cut and sanded into vertebrae. I want to get away from using so much foam. It is not degradable. But since I have so much left over from the Roy Bot sculpture, I figured I'd use it up rather than throw it away. So far, I really only have the head and pelvis finished but I thought it might be interesting to see some of the progress.

In my mom's attic I found an old book I had in college. It is The Ultimate Visual Dictionary. This is going to be invaluble for me in the future since it has detailed photographs of almost anything you can think of. It has great photos of dinosaur skeltons.

Jar of Buttons

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 18:10:13 GMT

I made a little Screamer* head as a gift for someone. It is for someone who likes sewing and stuff so it is appropriately themed.

*If you don't know what a Screamer is then you should get this book immediately: A Simple Screamer

Breakfast of Champions

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 23:15:17 GMT

I love inspirational movies. A movie that recently inspired me is Better Off Dead. Here are the ways that this movie has inspired me:

1) In the begining of the movie there is a scene where Lane's father discovers that his youngest son has clipped out all of the coupons from the back of the cereal boxes. However, he didn't wait until the cereal boxes were empty. The cereal spills all over the place and hilarity ensues. I like comedy that involves cereal. So I decided to incorporate breakfast cereal into my new paper mache sculpture.

2) Througout the film it is implied that Lane's mother is a horrible cook. One evening she is serving dinner to the family. It is a green, slimy, goo with some suspended matter in it. Shortly after she spoons some onto Lane's plate the goo begins to throb and eventually crawls off the plate and onto the table. I like monster-food. So I decided to incorporate a monster and food into my new paper mache sculpture.

3) In the movie, Lane gets a job at a burger joint called Pig Burgers. Since Lane is not a very ambitious fellow he soon lapses into a daydream while manning the grill. His fantasy consists of a personified hamburger dancing and singing to Van Halen's "Everybody Wants Some" off of their Best of Both Worlds album. I like the singing hamburger and "Everybody Wants Some" is one of Van Halen's best tunes. So I decided to incorporate a singing entity into my new paper mache sculpture.

I used several non-paper based items in this scuplture. These include a spoon, a juice glass, an old milk bottle, and some black hair from an old Halloween mask. I also used real breakfast cereal. I wasn't confident that real cereal would hold up very long despite the large amounts of preservatives in it. So I decided to forgo gluing it or permanently attaching the cereal to the sculpture. I used Applejacks. When I was a kid, in the 1980's, Applejacks where one color: kind of a light-orange color. But now, for some reason, Applejacks also contain some green pieces too. I don't know why they have to change things. Was there a problem with the original color of the Applejacks? Where they not selling well? Has the color change increased sales? I wonder if it is the same reason that they added all of the new Lucky Charms marbits. Anyhoo, I picked all of the green Applejacks out and ate those.

My cat liked his beard

Overall, I am fairly satisfied with this piece. The cereal box turned out OK. It isn't really how I envisioned it, but it is OK. I didn't want the box to be the focus of the sculpture so the minimal amount of detail that I used is probably to my advantage. One thing I don't like is the lettering. In the furture I should probably try and find a good way to make nice lettering.

Here is something cool. While surfing the web for a mail order bride, I stumbled upon another sculpture of Smelly Sally. It is from Argentina. Take a look: Click Here

What exactly is in a Name?

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:12:45 GMT

If you have ever been to museum or art show you would have noticed that every piece of art has a formal name. Much of the time the name makes perfect sense. Like, a painting of an apple might be called "A Still Life of an Apple" or a sculpture of a man and a woman hugging might be called "Embrace." I get that. I understand that. But sometimes, I have noticed that the name of the art piece doesn't correspond to what the art piece actually is. Personally, I think the artist is just screwing with us. Why would someone paint a picture of an apple and call it "Gravity in Oils" or sculpt a man and a woman hugging and call it "Days of the Week?" But stuff like this happens all the time.

Here are the "formal" titles of some of my stuff. I try to have mine make sense:

"Fallen Hero"

"It's Grim Reaper"

"Genetically Modified Organism"

"Pac Man (with Ghosts)"

"Killer Bass"

Domo arigato, Mr. Roy Bot-o

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 22:51:14 GMT

Roy Bot is finished. It didn't go off without a hitch though. One issue was that I used Super Sculpey to construct the hands. This was a big mistake. Super Sculpey is very heavy. I would guess that each hand was about 200g. I attached the hands with a product called Liquid Nails. You'd think that with a name like "Liquid Nails" the stuff would hold very well. But this was not the case. It seemed to be taking a very long time to cure to hardness even after sitting in front of the dehumidifier for 48 hours. I checked the tech sheet online for Liquid Nails and it says that the cure time for maximum strength is 14 days. So I figured I'd let the project sit while I went to Colorado for business. But when I came back, the hands had already fallen off.

I found another scultable product called Model Magic. It is made by Binny & Smith which is based here in Pennsylvania, just a few miles down the road. Model Magic is as light as foam. But it can be sculpted like clay. It takes about 24 hours to harden. When cured, the product is very lightweight, spongy, smooth, and paintable. When painted, the sculpey hands look exactly like the Model Magic hands. This was perfect. I just wish I would have thought of it before.

The only problem with Model Magic is that it cannot be stored after opening. It comes in foil packs of various sizes. I bought a bucket of four 6oz packets. Once you open one of the foil packs you have to use the entire package. The unused portion will cure if you use it our not. Once that package is open the product starts curing and the process cannot be stopped. So I have also learned that while larger packs may seem more economical, smaller packages are better since there is less waste and unused product.

I realize that the American flag is a little hokey. I am not sure that I like it. I made it to add structural support to the sculpture and keep the torso from flexing at the waist. But I did not glue it on so I can remove it any time I want. It isn't really needed since the sculpture is pretty secure by itself. To me, it seems a little gratuitously patriotic.

Some odds & ends that I used on this piece are wire nuts and bobbin spools for the wrist rockets (orange things), telephone jacks for the rear electronics, and discharge hose for the legs and arms. I also added some electrical wires inside the abdomen too. I found some decals from a chemical safety brochure and a safety label from a bottle of 70% isopropanol (I work at a chemical company) and attached them to the fuel tank.

Paper Mache Babe-fest

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:22:13 GMT

I feel compelled to bring attention to a webiste I stumbled upon. It is the site of an artist called Gene Fenton. The site caught my eye for a few reasons: 1) he is an artist in Pennsylvania, like myself 2) He uses paper and paper mache, like myself 3) He mainly makes monsters, which I like 4) He photographs his sculpture with female models, which I also like.

That's right. He gets girls to pose with his paper mache montsers. How cool is that? I'm lucky if I can get my cat to pose with my sculpture. Now, not all of the girls are 10's. Some of them are actually sub-6's. But it's still a fantastic idea and makes for a great website. I plead with you to take a look. It's my new favorite.

"That's Hot..."

Here is Gene's website: My New Hero, Gene

Here Gene's gallery of "Scream Queens" with his paper monsters: Scream Queens

Keep doing the Roy Bot

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:12:05 GMT

The Roy Bot sculpture is going swimmingly. Here are pictures of the progress.

Do the Roy Bot

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 01:25:41 GMT

To get the bad taste of Smelly Sally out of my mouth I (almost) immediately began working on Roy Bot. This is based on Garbage Pail Kid Series 3 card # 87b. I am only in the begining stages and I already feel better. I have decided that I took the published image of Smelly Sally too literally...I tried to be too faithful to the card in color, shape, and scale and lost a sense of creativity. For Roy Bot I am trying to take more artistic liberties. I am finding that, particularly in the rear of the sculpture, I am more free to make things up. Since I cannot see back there on the card, I can only imagine what it looks like back there. Plus there are some things on the front that I am changing too. I believe that I can create a sculpture that is an inspired interpretation of the card rather than be exact in every aspect. This is making me much happier. But at the same time I am waiting for something to go wrong, as I always do.

I am using styrofoam for the structure. Admittedly, this is weighing on my conscience. I feel very uncomfortable using a non-degradable product that has not been recycled. Normally I will use things that I have found rather than purchase them. I'm not trying to be some patchouli-wearing, idealist artist. I just like the idea of reforming old junk into art. The full circle of an object from an unwanted burden to a desired and sought after commodity...that is the kind of art I like to look at and that is the kind of artist I respect most. But at this point I have not commited to being a recycle-only artist so styrofoam will do...

Even though I still have one more Cabbage Patch Kid head left I think this is the last Garbage Pail Kid sculpture for a while.

Here is a picture of some of the pieces I have done so far. I have the chest and breast-plate sculpted and the hip section too.

Smelly Sally Lives! (for now)

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 19:01:15 GMT

The Smelly Sally sculpture is finished. It is based upon the Garbage Pail Kid series 3 card #108a. It turned out OK...I'm not thrilled with it. I would probably even go as far as saying I am unhappy with it. I think the head is too small and the colors are not quite right. This project has put me in "a bad place." But I took some photos of the process anyway and tried my best to detail each step:

The first thing I did was make some sketches based upon the card. I can draw OK. But please don't judge my abilities from this picture. I used a small ruler to get the proportions and used the proportions and the dimensions of the doll's head to determine the size of the sculpture overall. I figured that 1cm on the card equalled 7.7cm on the sculpture. Even though I am in America I usually use the metric system. It just makes more sense. I believe that the US should adopt the metric system officially.

Much of the sculpture is made of newspaper. I like to use "The Nazareth Key," which is a free weekly newspaper that comes in the mail. I don't read it. But I save all of the issues in a bin for times just like this. 'The Key' isn't really a "newspaper" since it doesn't actually report any news. Mainly it is just full of advertisements and announcements for Kiwanis club meetings, Dean's list, etc. But since it is printed on newsprint, I will call it "newspaper" from here on.

Here is where the first thing unwittingly went wrong. For the sculpture's body, I needed balls of newspaper of various size. I tried to estimate the size of the "body" balls as best as possible with the understanding that the head is slightly larger than the torso. I made the ball too big because I did not take into consideration that the newspaper ball is going to have several additional layers on it before it is done. Thus, adding to the overall size. Bonehead move. I said earlier that I don't read 'The Key.' That's not completely true. While I'm taring it up and crunching it into balls I do read some of the ads. Here is one of my favorites. It is for a company that provides a novelty service for birthdays, childbirths, graduations, etc. They will fill people's lawns with zany and wacky plywood cutouts of cartoon characters while the "victim" is away at work or sleeping. Then, when the victim comes home or goes outside to get the newspaper (not The Key, that comes in the mail) he will be shocked and delighted to find 50 wooded penguins adorning their lawn to remind him that it's his 50th birthday. At that point, hijinks are bound to ensue.

I fashioned the balls together to form a body piece and tail piece. I use lots of masking tape to fix them together. Then I use a piece of wire clothes hanger to give the piece a bit more structural integrity. Then I cover the whole thing with lots of masking tape. I go through a lot of tape. Remember the movie "Mommy Dearest" with Fey Dunaway playing the role of Joan Crawford? Well that movie must have really had an effect on this country because wire clothes hangers are really hard to find nowadays. Whenever I do see some, usually at a garage sale, I buy them all. I recommend that you do the same. But for the love of God, don't use them to hang clothes.

The body and tail were just balls of newspaper and didn't really have any structural integrity (if I sat on them, they'd flatten). So to make them hard, like rocks, I covered them in paper mache using newsprint. It's not really paper mache that I'm did here since I'm not using any paper pulp. But since I'm calling 'The Key' a newspaper when it really isn't I can probably call this technique 'paper mache' even though it really isn't. I started with a large bowl and put in some bleached flour and add warm water. It was important to me that the water be warm because my hands were going to be in there and warm goo feels better than cold goo. I used a wire wisk to beat the flour and water into a paste, removing all lumps. I made the consistency like that of a crepe batter (a thin pancake batter, for those of you in the mid-west). Now I needed to tare strips of newspaper. Mostly, I made wide strips, like half a page wide. But I did make some narrower strips too.

Now the fun part. Stealing liberaly from the techniques in Dan Reader's books (see Literacy Campaign list to the left) I got my hands completely wet with the paste and messaged the paste onto the ball so that the ball was completely wet. Then I covered the wet ball with a strip of DRY newspaper. Then I wet that piece of newspaper and applied another strip. It was important to 1) not put the paper into the paste, instead put the paste onto the paper 2) not apply the next piece of paper until the layer underneath is completely wet. I repeated this until there are about 8 to 10 total layers of newspaper on each piece. I made sure not to make 7 or 11 layers because those are "bad" numbers. I put the pieces on a cookie sheet and placed them outside to dry. In the hot Summer sun it took about two full afternoons for them to dry completely. When they were dry, they were very hard.

While my balls were drying I set off to construct the sardine can that Sally would spend most of her time in. Using the proportions determined from the sketches, I made a template out of cardboard for the bottom of the sardine can. The stuff that most people refer to as "cardboard" isn't actually cardboard. It is called "corrugated paper." You know when you buy a notepad or notebook there is usually a stiff piece of board in the back to give the pad some stiffness so it is easier to write on? Well that stuff is "cardboard." The material that makes-up a "cardboard box" is actually "corrugated paper" and a "cardboard box" is properly called a "corrugated carton." "Corrugated paper" is a piece of convoluted paper (i.e. it looks like a wavy line) sandwhiched between two pieces of paper. I learned all of this while I worked at a corrugated box factory for two summers during college. But since I am calling 'The Key" a newspaper and a 'paper layering technique' papier mache I have no problem calling 'corrugated paper' cardboard from here on. Why break precident? I found some scrap plywood in the garage and, with the help of a jigsaw, cut out the bottom of the sardine can.

I used some more cardboard to form the walls of the sardine can. I made a double layer to create a good thickness (plenty of glue between the layers) and attached the walls to the plywood with a staplegun. I covered the staples with masking tape so they would not cause any unusual texture after paper mache-ing. To create the rolled lip around the edge of the sardine can I used an old section of coaxial cable. I taped this to the edge to hold it in place until it is covered with paper. On the Smelly Sally card, the sardine can is open which creates a torn-away feature on the inside of the can. I used more cardboard to do this by tracing the perimeter of the sardine can and making a jagged-edge. This piece was then glued and taped into place.

At this point it was time to remove the head from the original doll’s body. To do this, I like to light some candles and turn the lights down. I then lay the doll upon the alter. The actual head removal takes only a few seconds so it is best to draw it out as much as possible with theatrics. The heads of these dolls are attached with a regular nylon zip-tie. So a quick snip with a razor and the head is removed. I seems very painless and peaceful.

Since my balls were now dry I could attach the body ball to the tail. With a razor knife I cut a hole in the tail piece to accept the body ball. I used some glue and lots of tape. It was important to give the body a nice hour-glass shape. Next, I marked and fit the hole for the head. I couldn’t make the arms quite yet because they needed to be a specific length so that the left arm would touch the sardine car correctly. So I had to work a bit more on the sardine can, particularly the roll and key.

To make the roll I used a piece of posterboard rolled-up and taped. Then I used more wire clothes hanger to create the key. I covered the wire with newspaper and lots of tape. I closed both ends of the roll with a circle of cardboard and inserted the key into one end through a hole that I cut. The key was glued and held in place by lots of tape. Now I could determine the length of the arms by positioning the body inside the sardine can and holding the roll in place.

Now that I knew how long the arms should be I balled-up some newspaper: 2 balls for each arm and 1 ball for each hand. I taped each arm together in the correct pose as per the card. For fingers I used some balls of Scupey instead of paper. On my last GPK sculpture I used paper and did not like how the fingers turned out. Each finger was then held in place by hotglue and lots of tape. I did not yet attach the arms to the body because I still had a lot to do with the tail and did not want extra nonsense getting in the way.

To create the fish-tail I used pieces of wire clothes hangers to create the “skeleton of the tail. I then used techniques popularized by Dan Reader to cover the tail with a piece of old bedsheet soaked in thinned white glue: I cut a piece of sheet to size and dipped it into a container of slightly thinned white glue. I squeezed out the excess and carefully laid the clothe over the wire frame. I pushed the clothe in a bit with my finger between each piece of wire to create a realistic effect. I let this dry overnight. Once dry, I trimmed it with scissors to make the shape of the finished fishtail.

For the scales on the tail I again used Dan Reeder’s techniques. I cut about 150 3cm squares out of old bedsheet. I readied my container of thinned white glue and hung the body from a wire on the ceiling to make it easier to work with. I soaked a handful of squares in the glue and squeezed out as much glue as possible. Each scale is a single square, with two corners folded in, to create somewhat of a triangle. The scale is placed on the tail with the folds down starting at the tail end and working up to the torso. The residual glue holds the scale in place. This was very time consuming and was done in three sessions, allowing some to dry overnight and then proceeding the next day.

Once the tail was dry I could attached the arms. I did this with glue and lots of masking tape.

Using glue I attached the roll/key piece to the sardine can itself.

At this point the body and sardine can are ready for the paper mache skin. For this I like to use wallpaper glue and paper towels. The best paper towels I have found are made by Kimberly Clark. They are called Shop Towels and they are blue. The reason I like these is that they are very strong, flexible and stretchy. They can easily traverse any corner without causing a crease. I like to use wallpaper paste that is specifically for bathrooms and kitchens because it has anti-fungal agents in it. I tear the shop towel into little bits and discard any of the edges. Using a paintbrush I coat the entire piece in paste. Then, as I apply them, I coat each papertowel piece with paste and smooth it on with the paintbrush. Each piece overlaps until the enter sardine can, arms, and torso are covered. This dried overnight and then got a second coat of papertowels.

Once the second coat of papertowel dried I brushed on a coat of straight white glue. Thinned white glue will not work here because the water causes the papertowel to swell, potentially disfiguring the work. Once that coat was dry, a second was applied in the same manner. The glue acts to seal the paper and also fills-in any uneven blemishes. The paper towels have a definite texture that is unwanted. The glue fills that in and makes it smooth.

Once the glue is dry, I lightly sanded the piece with 220 grit sandpaper. I used a tack cloth to remove any dust and also blew the whole thing off with compressed air to further remove dust.

Then all of the blue areas got two coats of gesso. I find no need to gesso the clothe parts since 1) they are already white 2) they have sufficient texture to forcefully adhere the paint.

I have no idea how to braid hair. And I’m very proud of that fact. So I had my wife braid two pigtails onto the sides of the doll’s head. She held them in place with two small rubber bands. I pushed a piece of wire through the tip of one braid, through the braid itself, through the skull and “brain” and on through the braid on the other side. This would allow the braids to be poseable. The braids were finished off with two blue bows. How pretty.

To create the name plate, I printed the text from my computer. The font that best fits the Garbage Pail Kids style is Times New Roman. I measured the text to get an idea of how big the name plate would be. I cut out two pieces of cardboard. One piece would be the black “outline” and was slightly larger than the other. Each piece was covered with paper towels and given two coats of white glue. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper and gave two coats of gesso. The smaller of the two pieces was dedicated to receive the text. So I positioned the text over the name plate with a sheet of carbon paper in between. Then I traced the lettering so it would transfer to the name plate. I then went over the outline with a black Sharpie. I did this before painting because I knew that the paint color (bright yellow) would not cover the marker completely. So I could get two coats of paint on the name plate and still be able to see the marker underneath, which I could fill-in with black paint. The other, larger piece was simply painted black. Once dry, both pieces were glued together to create a stylized 3D nameplate.

Painting of the sardine can involved metallic paints, silver and bronze. These types of paints are notorious for not providing good coverage. So I gave the entire sardine can an undercoat of regular paint that would provide a good backdrop for the metallic paints. I printed the words “FRESH SARDINES” from my computer and transferred these to the sides of the can using carbon paper. Red paint was used to finish the lettering along with a black outline.

I first put an undercoat of blue on the tail using acrylic paint. My intention was that I would then spray over the tail in silver and the blue would show through as a highlight from under the scales. It was a good theory. I thinned the silver acrylic paint with glass cleaner as I always do and loaded my air brush. For the first few minutes the paint ran through the airbrush acceptably. But it went downhill fast from there. The silver paint has metallic small flakes in it which clog the tip of the airbrush. So I had to resort to plan B. I had some silver spray paint left over from another project. So I painted the tail with that instead. The spray paint was a little too shiny and a little too metallic looking from my tastes. But it did the job and looked alright. Once the spray paint was dry I covered the entire body and tail with glitter spray, concentrating and putting a heavier coat on the tail and fin. While cleaning my airbrush, the trigger and a small internal part slipped out of my grasp and fell down into the garbage disposal in the sink. I spent about 20 minutes fishing the parts out of the drain. I allowed the body and tail to dry overnight while I fretted over whether or not the tail color was too similar to the color of the sardine can (which I was). So to combat this, I prepared a dilute wash of black paint by mixing a squirt of paint with a few drops of water. I dipped a rag in the wash and wiped it onto the silver parts of the sardine can, purposefully avoiding the bronze parts. I let it dry a few seconds and wiped it off with a dry towel. I felt that this toned down the silver color enough. I allowed the sardine and the body and tail to dry overnight. Between the problem with the airbrush, having to fish out my airbrush parts from the smelly garbage disposal, and the colors not looking right, my anxiety level increased four-fold in a matter of an hour.

I tried really hard to find real dried starfish for the bra. I searched every craft store in the area. And while they do carry dried starfish, I could not find any that were small enough (about 4.5cm max) for this project. There are two types of stores that I do not enjoy going into. The first is video games stores. These places are nerd-central (in fact, my wife refers to them as "nerd-stores"). And, while I do enjoy an occassional video game, I do not consider myself of the same ilk as the people that frequent these places. This, coupled with the fact that the clerks at video game stores are, what I would consider, "overly friendly," makes video game stores one of my two least favorite retail areas. The second type of store that I don't like is craft stores. These are frequented by women, some artsy-types which I don't mind, but also a lot of what I like to call "scrap booking moms." The Scrap Booking Moms (SBM's) make me very uncomfortable and give me anxiety. Partly because they are constantly in my way, blocking the paint isle, for example, with their shopping cart (who the heck is buying so much stuff at a craft store that they need a cart?). But also because it is such an overall feminine place and I am, quite frankly, a straight male who, as I have been told, "looks a little gay." All of this makes me very uneasy. So anyway, I couldn't find real starfish that were the right size. So instead, I made two starfish from Sculpey. Sculpey is a polymer clay that is baked in a household oven. I covered the starfish with papertowel-mache, painted the starfish, and glued them in place. For the straps of the bra, I used tiny seashells that were glued into place.

The body, sardine can, and name plate were given one coat of glossy water-based polyurethane. I like to use this becase it dries very fast, it will not turn yellow like oil-based polyurethane, and I like the way it looks. Once the first coat was dry I assembled the entire sculpture by gluing (white glue) the body in place, gluing the head on, and gluing the nameplate in place. Once the glue was dry, I gave the entire sculture a second coat of polyurethane. I did't like the way this thing looked and I was very bummed out about it. But not everything can be a success.

Presenting: "Smelly Sally #108a"

Trashed Tracy (Epilogue)

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 00:13:36 GMT

Today I finished "Trashed Tracy 129b." I am fairly satisfied with how it turned out. I still have 3 Cabbage Patch Dolls left (two bald and one blonde female) so I'll probably make three more of this type of sculpture. Two that I have in mind are Smelly Sally (Series 3, Card #108a) and Roy Bot (Series 3, Card #87b). Roy Bot could potentially be very cool (and quite challenging, I predict). For Smelly Sally I can use fish-scale techniques that I have already used in previous pieces. In one of my next projects I hope to completely document it from begining to end with photos. Hopefully I'll end up with several dozen pictures of each phase.

Wawa (www.wawa.com) is a convenience store here in Pennsylvania. For a convenience store they sure have good hoagies (the store calls them "Shorti's). They also have really good soft pretzels that are available right at the counter. Although, since they sit right next to the cash register, in open air and in no wrapper, they are probably teaming with bacteria from people coughing near them, hair falling on them, and people picking them up, deciding not to purchase, and putting them back. But boy do they taste good...especially around the 'knot' part of the pretzel. It's just a big, doughy, soft nugget of deliciousness.

Trashed Tracy

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 00:11:24 GMT

My current paper mache (PM) project is inspired by the 1980's pop-culture icons Garbage Pail Kids. Since I recently found 4 old Cabbage Patch Dolls at a yard sale I suspect that my next few projects will be along this line as well. My current sculpture is based upon "Trashed Tracy" which is card #129b in Series 4 #. I started it a month ago and, while it seems simple enough, it has lots of individual parts so it is taking longer than I anticipated.

The preparation of the doll was satisfying. I've always wanted to tear the head off of one of those things. They are just so creapy looking. I don't inderstand why children enjoyed them so much during the height of their popularity some twenty years ago.

The head is attached to the fabric body by a ordinary nylon "zip tie." It is not unlike the ones found in the electrical section of Home Depot. A quick snip of the tie and the head came right off. No fanfare, but certainly satisfying.