Paper mache

While I’m not done debating what to tell you first from my accidental blogging hiatus, I can see I wrote something last summer about the Alebrijes class I took. Alebrijes are specifically Mexican mythical creatures and I’m not really staying within the confines of that, but the technique I initially worked on comes from that tradition.

So why not round that off by creating a mini exhibition of my first pieces. I’m still working on the subject in fits and starts, multiple ideas on the back burner; but this summer was quite warm aka the past dries too fast and goes mouldy + we had people looking in the windows which I’m not super fond of I must admit. Most of these figures have already been aired on Instagram, so please excuse me if this is a recap for you.

I’m calling my entire collection of paper sculptures “Heart of Stone, Feet of Clay” because I weigh them down with either a rock in the belly (Found locally on my walks or on the property) or clay/plaster at the bottom, so you can put them anywhere and not have them topple by a gust of wind.

The topic of the class was “Does it fly?” and I latched on to the “?”

Next I felt like doing something with my empty weaving cones to reflect my interest in upcycling, and to keep it related, the Weaving C(r)ones were born, each with a name and a little story. Two of these have since relocated to England, but the rest are up for grabs should you fall in love. 😉

Staying within the confines of the cone base, I took to experimenting with faces, and created a bunch of gawky geezers. I’m not going to show you today however, because I had a bit of a brain fart and entered them in a juried art exhibition. But I promise a later installment of this post with more characters.

I want to work on more faces + animals, but I think perhaps I need to let loose and not make the cones compulsory – I have plenty though, so they may appear in another series at some point. There’s a horsey set that has been almost but not quite done for some time, so they are up next! I’ve been struggling with painting horses as well, while intending to for years, but I get thrown by my poor drawing skills. Abstractifying something like that AND make it look good takes skill too.

In my next papermache post I’ll talk a little about materials that I use, if anyone is interested in that!