Creative Paper Mache

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

Why is it so difficult to find the time to do the things we enjoy? Are we getting our priorities right here? We have such a short time on this planet, relatively speaking, and yet we spend most of that time jumping through hoops to please others.

There are two things I would love to do more of. One is my art and the other is keep our websites up to date on a more regular basis. I’m planning to take some time out for my art in March and we’re hoping to put together a video showing a couple of projects step by step. Annie will probably kill me for mentioning that because it really is just at the drawing board stage right now.

As far as updating the website goes I won’t be making any promises as I know I’m pretty rubbish at it. But as I find more time for the art, I will try to add new images and hopefully move on from the basics in the “how to” section.

Well, I finally got round to adding the basics of PM. You can find it here. Annie is currently working on some photos for the projects and then they will be going up too.

We will be adding the projects one at a time because it takes a while to do each stage. Over all the years we have been doing PM it never actually occurred to take photos of the process. Oh well, you live and learn.

We have now finished all of our confirmed workshops for this year so hopefully the website will be getting a bit more attention. We may have one more booking before the end of the year but the ladies are currently trying to co-ordinate dates.

For now, I hope the basics help you get stared.

Stay creative,

K

Apologies are the order of the day. I know I am supposed to update this site on a regular basis but I’m away at the moment and we have even had to turn down the offer of exhibiting at the grand opening of a new attraction in the area.

However, there is some good news. Annie and I have decided, that instead of waiting until we have finished compiling our book and selling it, we are going to add it to the site, bit by bit, as free content.

I should be back home next week and then we will be working on the site in a big way. So look out for new content that will include some paper mache tutorials and the latest news.

This is the latest addition to the gallery.

A fairly simple looking bowl that almost had Annie ripping her hair out.

First off, being in a hurry, she forgot to line the mould with cling wrap.

For a while we thought we would never get it off the plastic bowl she used but luckily, once it was partly dry, it came out with a bit of poking and prodding. That said, I don’t recommend ever forgetting the release agent! We had to add a second layer of pulp to the underside to repair the damage we did by removing it.

Her next problem came as the bowl fully dried. We had both decided that it looked really good with the brown pebbles against the raw pulp and I suggested that she should just varnish it when it was fully dry and leave it at that. However, once it was dry, the pulp had turned a more greyish colour and Annie decided it clashed with the pebbles.

I will have to take her word for it as I am away at the moment and never saw the offending grey pulp. The first I knew abut it was a ratty looking icon on MSN and Annie saying she had ruined her bowl.

First she had tried to cover the pulp with magnolia emulsion, leaving the stones their natural colour but, being a bit heavy handed, she managed to get emulsion all over the place as she tried to paint between the little pebbles.

Unhappy with that result, she decided to try something completely different and painted it over with a burnt orange paint she was mixing for a painting she was working on. Having decided she hated that too she tossed the bowl to one side and announced she had ruined it and it was consigned to the scrap heap.

This morning we had a webcam meeting and she showed me the bowl. It looks pretty much how it did before she attacked it. After giving up on it for a few days she decided to have one last rescue attempt.

She painted the whole thing, stones and all, in magnolia emulsion and let it dry. Next she painstakingly painted each little pebble with acrylic paint mixed to match, as closely as possible, the original colour of the stones. Once that had dried she varnished it and I think the final result hides all the frustrations brilliantly.

All I can say is rather her than me. I would have just left it as it was!

Annemarie was working in the studio (fancy name for the spare bedroom) trying to get ready for a craft fair.

She had finished a bowl which was made spreading a fairly thin layer of pulped newspaper over a shallow bowl lined with cling wrap.

The bowl had been allowed to dry well and had been coated with household emulsion and Annemarie was feeling a bit intimidated by the stark white.

“How am I going to decorate this?” She moaned, every time she looked at it.

“You’ll think of something,” I replied, hopping around trying not to stand on the brand new carpet with a foot I’d just dipped in glue. (One day I might just post how that happened.)

And think of something, she did! She raided the kitchen and came back upstairs with the spice rack. After tipping a few random spices onto a piece of white paper she decided that the ginger and cayenne pepper looked good together.

The next step was marking out a fairly random pattern. By this time I was intrigued and abandoned my project to watch. She glued each section separately and added the spice before moving onto the next one. It took several layers of glue and spice but the end result was great.

It’s a real shame we had to varnish it because it had a beautiful soft, suede-like look as it was drying. But, it needed the protection and we also had to seal the smell in. The studio still smells like an exotic restaurant. The underside of the bowl was sealed with medium oak wood dye.

The spice bowl has just been added to the gallery.

Well, we’ve finally got round to doing something with the website. It’s taken a long time and the changes, so far, are mainly with the look rather than the content. New content is on the way though.

We’ve been really busy lately with a craft weekend which resulted in several bookings for workshops. We’re also working on a body of work to sell on a new website we will be launching later in the year. More news on that coming soon.
We are also in the process of writing an ebook that will be up for sale on this site in the next few weeks. The aim of the book is to get you recycling your junk into great works of art. There’s also a section on selling your work once you’ve gained the confidence and the experience.

Right, I’m heading back to work now. More news later.

xKaren

PS: Watch out for projects which will soon be posted on this page too.