3D MOON & STARS MOBILE PART 2 BUILDING THE MOON

Time to get back to my stars & moon mobile project i think.

So we already have our stars from the earlier stage of this project all but finished, theres one last detail i want to add to them but i am saving that for the end stage. Now it's time to work on the 3D moon from which they are to hang

In my opinion when making the moon for a mobile such as this the moon needs to be bigger than the biggest star made, but in YOUR mobile it's your say. Start with a disk of cardboard. here i am using simple large packaging corrigated card stock.

Use the cardboard disk you cut out to make a paper disk the same size. If you do not have a large enough sheet of paper then simply glue together several sheets of A4 as i did here.

Now fold the 'paper' disk in half to find the central line of your card stock disk. Then use it as a guide to draw a line down the center of your card stock disk.

When you have done that remove the 'paper' disk & then 'score' down the newly drawn line on the card stock disk. Since this is corrigated card stock you need to at least break the surface of the side you are scoring down.

Now fold the card stock disk in half & crease the fold. Both sides if you wish but only one side IS sufficient for this stage.

Now either 'freehand' or using a guide draw out a 'semi-circle' line. If you can try to make one end wider than the other to make a slightly lop/odd ended moon shape. It is NOT important, but it will give the quarter moon shape we are about to make have a little more character i feel.

Once you have your moon shape cut out, tape along the 'inner' side. Where i have indicated here with the green arrow heads.

You do not need to go crazy taping here, just enough to hold it perfectly in place will do. I 'personally' call this 'TACKING' with tape.

Now we need to open up & support the other side somehow. YOU can use ANY method that suits YOUR design or skills to do this.

As I personally use as light weight & or as hollow a method(s) as i can as a kind of design signiture to my work. I am going to use some small toiletry thin card stock inner rolls as my supports. Holding one side i simply 'crushed' the top & the bottom at the same time to create a caved in side.

It's a little rough 'n' ready in appearnce but this is a moon so the final design need not be perfect!. In fact a little roughness around the edges WILL give it some character all round.

For MY moon only 2 supports were required. Again a little 'tape tacking' WILL hold these in place sufficiantly until we get the back in place. By which time it WILL be self-supporting anyway.

Now measure the 'widest' point on the now opened back side.

Then measure & cut a long enough piece of similar card stock to run down the back side of your moon. If you do not have a long enough piece for this then simply improvise by using smaller pieces to fill on the end(s). Again do not worry if they are thicker or thinner card stock. This will also add some character to the final design. Trust me here.

Now 'crease' the cardstock along it's whole length to give it a slightly curved look as depicted above. This WILL make fitting a whole lot easier.

You only need enough of a curve that fits the design of YOUR moon.

Using your moon as a guide trim off the fins that are created at the end(s). Then tack tape the whole thing together.

Now it is time to get some strips on. Those of you who want to work with pulps CAN do so NOW too. If you are using corrigated card stock then the project will have no trouble handling the extra wet weight. Just use what ever pulping methods you know & trust. If the corrigated card stock you may be using is 'thin' then a couple of layers of news print strips will give it some extra support before adding your pulp layer(s) if in doubt of the strength of your newly created moon armature.

Personally I prefer paper strips, faster drying & easier to apply.

So to the result: 3 layers of 80gsm A4 white printer paper & 3 layers of standard news print later, one moon armature. Rock solid & as light as any one could wish for even at this large scale. Here the camera angle & way i am holding the moon are making this look smaller than it really is. Now it is time to build a face on the moon. I am calling my moon 'Harvey moon' by the way.

This is the bottom lip for my moon. I have NO idea WHY but for some reason in the HOW TO video i show this cardstock section 'upside down' as you can see. I did not realise this until i came to edit out the images for my blog here. Any way not important i just thought i would mention it in case it confused people when they see the HOW TO then start to ask WHY did i turn it around when fitting it lol. Ahem!, moving on...

The bottom lip fitted side view.

Now front view. There is NO need to cut away the front edge of the moon 'inside' the mouth as this WILL be TOTALLY burried shortly so it will not be seen when we are finished.

The top lip.

Fitted & side view.

The front view. I think i will bring the top lip forward more than this so the lips meet in a 'pursed' smile more.

The nose...

Folded for fitting.

Fitted. Now you can see the face starting to emerge.

Once again the side view.

Now to start bulking out & shaping the face. To do this i am going to use foil. This long roll of semi-compacted foil is for the top edge of the bottom lip.

When using foil like this do not fully compact it when shaping it this way you will have some room for extra shaping if the foil is a little 'loose'.

Well thats enough for now but you can NOW find the YouTube video link in my extensive listing at the bottom of this blog. When i come back to this project we we continue with the face. Adding the eye's, eye brows & a few other facial details using foil & card stock. If the post at that time is not too long i will try to also show the arm construction too which is how i will be adding the stars. More on that the next time though.