paper crafts

When is it Art and When is it just Mess: An Exploration.

/ Marjorie Sanpietro / Leave a comment

During these last few weeks, I have been working on quite a few projects. I had a yard sale and THOUGHT I needed something else to keep me busy. So I started working on a desk and chair set I found on the side of the road.

I started out painting the wood parts white with plans to use blue metal enamel that I had purchased for another project. The white paint didn’t really speak to my soul – so I started decoupaging the chair with ripped pieces of dictionary pages (one of my favorite materials). I broke out the enamel to do the metal and just sort of said huh…I wonder what that would look like on the paper.

My husband called on his way home from picking up auction purchases – another new hobby of ours…and I told him I was either making art or a mess. That’s how I still feel about it. So what’s the difference? And how far is too far? Comment below to let me know.

Sometimes you make a mess when you’re creating a piece. That doesn’t mean the completed work you make is a mess. I’ve been making little signs out of pieces of wood. The wood almost looks like the back of stamps, but they stand up well. I was trying to stencil a tiny pineapple on a couple of tiny pieces. I went through 8 pieces to get ONE perfect pineapple – I still need to get another one but I’m a little worried about going through 8 more!

My point in telling both of those stories is to remind myself and maybe you that creativity is a process and not everything we make is going to be perfect and may take a couple of tries. We should keep trying if we have that creative spark. I know that I have to feed mine.

Making Large Paper Mache Dinosaurs – pt 3

/ Marjorie Sanpietro / Leave a comment

Progress goes slowly on the dinosaur. I’ve lost my helpers to Minecraft Dungeons…and the mastermind is not in love with the craft of paper mache. He does not love the glue on his hands.

Mr. Stegosaurus now has firmly attached feet. I ran strips lengthwise from the bottom of the feet up both sides of the leg and then wrapped additional strips around the leg.

I’m working on attaching the spines. I used what the boys drew and made more. I think I’ll need about 10 pairs of spines in varying sizes to finish. I used the handy-dandy masking tape from Scotch that doesn’t suck and went to town. One tip I can share – I attached the spines together where they met and hopefully gave them more stability.

I’ll reinforce them with more strips and glue and then add paper mache clay to give them detail. The next big task is making the paper mache clay. I’ll use the clay to smooth out my sculpture and add finer details – besides accenting the spines. I’m thinking toes, facial features, and bumps for knees are possibilities.

Three ingredients that I remember off the top of my head are joint compound, toilet paper and PVA glue (like white Elmer’s). I’m interested in how far the recipe from Ultimate Paper Mache that I plan on following will go in covering Mr. Stegosaurus. I think I’ll probably need multiple batches.

If I continue the dino paper mache saga – I’ll start cutting out the T-Rex. I feel like he is going to be more difficult – because he’ll be standing up on two back legs. Luckily, I found these cardboard boot inserts that I might use for his feet. They seem heavier and like they would give him more stability.

Stay tuned and comment below! What’s the craziest thing you have made for your kids?