Can you make some larger pieces - dogs, cows etc.? ..The gallery owner asked.. "No problem!", I replied!
I have a general policy of saying "yes" to new requests as I like the challenge and after 30 years I am fairly confident I can tackle a creative problem successfully. I had to work a few things out first though - it's relatively easy making small pieces in paper mache, but large is a whole different kettle of fish (or large dog in this case)! For starters - how best to make an armature? It would have to be strong to support all that extra weight. Next - how quicky can I make something that big? Making only one a year won't pay the bills..! And they need to be light enough to lift easily - I don't want myself or anyone else to run up sizeable bill with the osteopath as a result of moving my sculpture around! And lastly, I had made some oversize pieces previously which, although successful had involved in extravagant skeletons underneath and complex shipping operations to get them to their destination, all of which needed revisiting and refining.
So I put my thinking cap on and indulged in a little research to come up with a couple of methods of making large, strong, lightweight and (fingers crossed) weather proof paper mache sculpture. (You can see how I've been testing my work for weather resistance in other Blog posts.)
This particular Pointer dog is a bit of a hybrid of techniques and I have since improved my methods even more which you can also find elsewhere in my Blog. You can watch some work in progress in the video below. For this dog I have used cardboard boxes to build the body neck and head (being hollow this keeps things light) and padded out the form with scrunched up newspaper stuck down with masking tape. I've experimented here with using branches from the trees in my garden for the legs and tail which, provided they are not rotten and weak, are a good free source of wood for sculpting. If you would like to try making something like this at home I have added a few "fun freebies" in my Blog plus there are lots of examples for inspiration on my social media @taniasgallery and @taniahollandgallery on You Tube so be sure to give me a follow!
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