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Your Paper Mache – Page 4

I’m always thrilled when people use my books and videos and to make something they love. Here are more photos sent to me from people doing paper mache. If you would like to share a paper mache project on this site, send it to me at: dan@gourmetpapermache.com.

Below is Joey’s paper mache “Jabberwock”. It is an amazing articulated head. The jaws will open and close!

Below is Liza with her pet paper mache dragon! This is her first paper mache project! Love it!

Sandy’s paper mache “Kylie”. Can’t tell which dog is cuter! Okay, both are adorable.

This is Jeremy’s paper mache “Critter”. Personality plus!

Jeremy is also a master at paper mache zombies. Here is his “Toxic Zombie”

Bailey and paper mache paper mache Nibbles

Bailey and Calvin are brother and sister (Mike’s kids). Above is Bailey with her paper mache “Nibbles”. Below is Calvin with “Marlin”. These two photos are a couple of my favorites. This is Julie’s paper mache (articulated!) dragon, “Dimi”

My good friend Suz makes the most fantastic shoes…out of paper mache! Well, she alters shoes using paper mache. I just think they are the coolest things! (And Suz is cool too!)

Fish and Shoe

And her Giraffe shoe. Magnificent!

And of course Suz would have a dragon shoe!

See more of Suz’s work here.

Below is Maria’s little paper mache dragon named “Genaro JeJeJeJe”. Great job!

Here is Nessa’s first (amazingly) paper mache project. A Cheshire Cat. Fantastic!!

My friend Mona has made some great paper mache projects.

I really love this little guy riding a turtle! It’s called “Faster Faster!” So much fun!

Monas paper mache two headed turtle with driver

Mona also made this little guy called “Franky the Dentist”. Mona’s cat loves it!

Check out Sabine’s giant paper mache Doll! And her first paper mache dragon (below).

Jean made a paper mache goldfish. Cool!

Up close. And Jean’s paper mache Seahorse below.

Oh…and she made a paper mache dragon coming out of a wall!

Check out Sonja’s full size, paper mache “Tinkerbelle” pinata. So cool! But I would hate to hit this with a bat!

From the back

Click here to go to the next “Your Photo Page”.

Your Paper Mache – Page 2

I’m always thrilled when people use my books and videos and to make something they love. Here are more photos sent to me from people doing paper mache. If you would like to share a paper mache project on this site, send it to me at: dan@gourmetpapermache.com.

Andrew with his paper mache Bat. Andrew used my Papier Mache Monsters book to make this. I just love it.

And, here is Jean’s paper mache “Priscilla”. What a great dragon!

Gerards’s “Byorshniven the Lake Goblin.” And his dragon, (below)

Below is Rick Pelletier’s Balrog. Rick is magnificent paper mache artist, and a good friend.

And here is Rick’s Elephant. Magnificent!

Here is Sandy’s Frog (above) and her Bill Clinton (below)!

Matt’s paper mache Monster. Great!

close-up

Brookbend Ferris made this paper mache Lion Head and Eagle. Wonderful work! Visit Brookbend on Facebook. She also raises Bengal cats. You can find them here.

Here is Alexander (from Moscow) with his fantastic fish!

This is Martha’s “Deep Water Bob”

This is Kent’s paper mache “Mr Krinkles”

Tom’s paper mache Screamer!

Mary’s excellent paper mache Angler fish!

Finally, Lori’s paper mache Dragon!

Click here to go to the next “Your Photo Page”.

Naga-Paper Mache Dragon Queen of Snakes

This is one of my favorite projects. I made this during a time when I was trying to deal with my “dragon problem.” I was forcing myself to make a few non-dragon paper mache items before allowing myself another dragon. Turns out I didn’t get too far from dragons. A friend of mine was visiting in Thailand and she sent me some photos of a snake deity. Apparently, Naga- Dragon Queen of Snakes is hot stuff in the Hindu world (in Thailand at least). I decided to make my own paper mache version after seeing her photos.

The photos of this snake are a bit deceiving. This snake when unfurled is over 6 feet long. But it is nice and compact when coiled. Of course the coiling made adding scales and breast plates difficult. Speaking of breastplates, check out the view from the bottom.

I think it’s cool. And speaking of scales….I have to say, that was quite the labor intensive task.

It took three weeks just to add the scales. Note that they had to grow in size from the tip of the tail to the head. And, as I mentioned, since the project is rigid, getting them into the places where he overlaps was a real challenge. That was true for painting as well. But you know, this kind of detail makes all the difference. I realize as I’m building a piece like this that I’m probably making the piece too expensive to sell by spending so much time on things like the scales. There is a point where you just put more labor into a project than you can get out of it financially. That is, unless you are willing to work for less than minimum wage. And I won’t. (That of course doesn’t even take the “art value” (how much of my soul I put into the project) into consideration.) Sorry, don’t know why I got into that.

I wish that these photos would show the paint more clearly. There is a lot of subtlety in the color that my camera just doesn’t catch. Here are a couple more photos.

If you’d like to see more about the making of this piece, please visit my blog.

Rum and Paper Mache

I really want to profile one of my favorite paper mache projects. It is also the most controversial. Why? Because it involves Rum. And puppets. Did you know that there are a bijillion people out there with a crippling fear of puppets? Yes, there is. I have met half of them. The condition is called Automatonophobia. It seems like they were the first to see my “Rum and Paper Mache” video featuring a cute couple (well, not cute to automatonophobiacs) and a dragon who arrives one evening with some Rum. Aside from the puppet part of the video, the Rum also caused a ruckus. Some saw the video as promoting drinking. I agree, but only among puppets! Here’s my defense. This wasn’t my idea. I heard a piece of music from a group, Alpha, that I really liked. It was really catchy and had a nice beat. It was the kind of music that make your toes tap (whether you want to or not). I’d been wanting to make another music oriented marionette video. (My first was called “Paper Mache Dragon Marionette.” More about that at the bottom of the page.) And this music just fit the bill. It happened to be called “Rum”. Hence the rum in video. In other words, it was Alpha’s fault that there is drinking in this video. Anyway, this project was one of my favorites. It involved making three puppets and scrounging and buying clothes, furniture and making the set. And it took six months to make.

They started like this….with lots of crumpling.

After the paper mache, the three characters looked like this.

After sculpting with the paper mache pieces they got their “skin” of cloth mache.

And after the paint.

If you’d like to see more about the making of the dragon, see the posts on my blog.

And if you want to see the video, then just click on the photo above.

By the way, I handled all of the controls in the making of this video. I had a crazy contraption for that. But I loved it. Here is what it looked like from above.

I mentioned that this project followed an earlier video I made called “Paper Mache Dragon Marionette.” If you’d like to see that video, just click on the photo below.

Paper Mache Dragon Marionette

And….I bought the rights to another piece of music. I’ve got some plans for that! Sorry all of you automatonophobiacs!

Your Paper Mache – Page 1

The best part of having this website is meeting people who enjoy paper mache like I do. I’m always thrilled when people use my books and videos and to make something they love. Here are more photos sent to me from people doing paper mache. If you would like to share a paper mache project on this site, send it to me at: dan@gourmetpapermache.com.

Bernardita’s paper mache Dragon (named “Dan”) and Fairy

coys Chupcabra and Miss Irenes paper mache

Coy’s paper mache Chupacabra with Miss Irene (on the left)

Travis’ paper mache Dragon Trophy

Chris’ Screamer

Kent’s paper mache “Karl”

Tim’s paper mache “Lil Red Dragon”

Ben and his paper mache Red Dragon

Alyse’s paper mache Octopus and Elephant

Jeannine’ paper mache Dragon Head

Eva’s “Checker”

6th Grade paper mache “Odyssey of Mind Dragon” made by Michale, Noelle, Samantha, Marie, Nick, and Zachary from Newtown, CT

Bridget’s paper mache Gargoyle

David’s paper mache “Alice” (above)
and
“Three Headed Snake” (below)

Chrisian’s First Paper Mache Project- love this monkey!

Karen’s Sea Serpent (head above, rest of the 30 ft below)

Hugue’s paper mache Dragon

And speaking of Screamers…

Chris’ paper mache “Screamer Class”

Anthonys Paco Steves paper mache screamer

Anthony’s paper mache “Paco Steve”

Lauren’s Screamer (below)

and Tiffany’s Screamer (below)

Willow’s “Tea for Two”
(okay, as Willow points out, this is not paper mache. But it is too good not to put on this site as well as her own. Visit Willow)
Below is Willow’s paper mache skull. It’s called “Draco Eatonus”

And Willow’s “Harey” (above)
and
“Barbie’s Bear” (below)

Jamie’s “Earth Dragon: Master of Might”

Lucie’s paper mache “Big Titus”

Konstantin’s paper mache Art (above and below)

Bill’s paper mache Fish Head

Luella’s paper mache Pumpkins

Dave’s paper mache “Chuckle Butt”

Colleen’s Pumpkins, Witch, and Monster

Carlos’ Green Monster with Christopher and Nicol Carlos likes to surround children with monsters (See below)

carlos new paper mache project w daughter

Matt’s paper mache Troll

Lucie’s Dragon (look below, after making lighting and color adjustments I found Lucie’s cat “Blacky” in the background…appropriate name!)

Crisi’s paper mache Scary Gary”

Erik’s “Dragon and Dinner”

Mary’s Dragon (above and below)

Zoe finishing her paper mache Dragon

Joel’s paper mache Dragon

Carlos’ Dragon Warrior (and cute kid)

Carlos’ dragon cyborg warrior

Another Carlos’ Warrior

Leslie’s paper mache Dragon– front and back

Cathy’s paper mache Dragons

Ana’s paper mache Dragon

Click here to go to the next “Your Photo Page”.

Pascal’s Paper Mache Dragon

I made a dragon for my friend Pascal and his family. Here he is. If you are interested in how he was made, you can see this on my blog, here.

One of the interesting things about this dragon is that when he is hung like this, he looks to be surveying the ground, perhaps looking for little children to eat.

When his vertical, he looks ready to fight.

From the back

And a close up. I think the color of the eyes make them really pop.

Outdoor Paper Mache Dragon

I have been asked for years to make paper mache sculptures that could stay outside. In fact, weatherproofing paper mache is kind of a holy grail of paper mache artists. Many have tried. Many have failed. I’ve made feeble attempts in the past. By that I mean I’ve just put a few things outside for a while to see how long they would last. They didn’t last long. The thing is, newspaper absorbs moisture. That’s why we use it after all. But this time I’ve made something that just might be the answer. This paper mache dragon is my most recent experiment. I have put it in the apple tree in my front yard. I’ve watched it for more than four years now. It has withstood Seattle weather without any deterioration. I’m surprised.

Watching over the neighborhood

Looking for children to eat

The thing is, he has become a landmark on Queen Anne Hill where I live. Every kid knows my dragon. He has to last now. I’m not ready to declare success. But I’m very optimistic. I’m willing to say that the process I used describe will last at least 5 years.

So what did I do? I used “exterior” grade wood glue instead of flour and water paste for the initial paper mache stage. Then I used the same glue for the “cloth mache” skin. Then I painted the project with exterior grade paints. Some people have tried sealants. I have too. I don’t like them. They change the paint. The clear layer takes away any subtlety in the color. Who wants something that lasts forever if it looks bad?

“Game of Thrones” Paper Mache Babies

I love the Game of Thrones. I decided to make a few paper mache Drogons, parallel to their appearance on the TV series.

Here is the first. In George RR Martin’s books, Drogon is the most fierce of the three dragons. He is black with red markings.

Baby Drogon

Viserion was born next. In the books he was supposed to be a creamy white color with gold markings. Here he is just breaking out of his egg.

Viserionbronze

That leaves the third dragon, Rhaegal. He was born last, as you can see. He is a green dragon with bronze markings.

Rhaegal

Now I know that in the books, and in the TV series, the three little dragons were born in the fire of the funeral pyre of Daenary’s husband, Dothraki Khal Drogo (I’ll be he was teased as a kid!). Dani (as I like to call her) went into the fire with her three eggs. In the book, when the smoke cleared, Rhaegal and Viserion were feeding on Dani’s breasts, and Drogon was on her shoulder. Perhaps you can see why I took the artistic liberties I did in these renditions. Once again, I have blog entries of these being made if you are interested. You can find it here.

And, I have a time-lapse video as well. Just click on the Rhaegal’s egg above.

Now Drogon did get older. Here he is as a juvenile.

And as a young adult (I had to make a trophy since the full dragon would have been way too big!). I have time-lapse videos of juvenile and young adult Drogons. Just go to my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/GourmetPaperMache to watch them. And subscribe if you haven’t.

Paper Mache Unipossum

People keep asking me to make a paper mache unicorn. Sorry. I just don’t want to. Actually, I did make one a long time ago. The publishers of my Simple Screamer book wanted me to make one project that showed you could use the techniques for something “cute” (or at least, not ugly). So I made a unicorn. I might get brave and post an old photo of it. I just never liked it. Anyway, I decided that a good compromise would be to make a “uni” something. An opossum seemed like a good idea. So I did. Here it is. If you would like to see the time-lapse video of this being made, then check out my Youtube video, here.

Your Paper Mache – Page 3

I’m always thrilled when people use my books and videos and to make something they love. Here are more photos sent to me from people doing paper mache. If you would like to share a paper mache project on this site, send it to me at: dan@gourmetpapermache.com.

First, let me introduce my friend from Turkey, Salih Bugra Algan with his amazing red paper mache dragon! Some people use falcons, others use dragons! Wonderful! You can find Salih here.