PLASTER PULP EXPERIMENTS CONTINUES - BUT NOT BY ME

I am often told by visitors/friends etc that they are going to or have or are trying out some of the projects 'methods' or my experiments i post here in my blog. Which IS of course 'why' i post them here lol. Sadly i rarely get to see the results or better still any on-going improvements anyone might be attempting to what i post.

Fortunately one of the top PM artists on the scene today who's own work required a fast cheap molding method that produced good high end results took up the experimenting reigns recently & tried out one of my test batches. With some slight adjustments to one of the batches i listed she managed to come up with a good working result that almost suits her needs. The artist in question of course being the renowned Jonni Good. You can find a link to Jonni's blog in my right hand column or you can jump there from here: http://ultimatepapermache.com/

Like myself (though with much better pictures) Jonni documents her work step by step making a great read & supremely easy to follow should you wish to attempt anything she does yourself. As i mentioned in my own 'original' plaster pulp experiment post. I will be going back to experimenting on the perfect batch as soon as possible. Of course whilst not yet getting back to it however i HAVE been thinking it over - The missing magic ingredient that is. Looking more closely at the commercial purchased pulp i used as a comparison mixture to my own two types of pulp. I have come to the conclusion that since the commercial pulp only requires water to be activated & dries to a true hard finish for this, then they HAVE to have included a bonding agent within the pre-mixed pulp. Well it only stands to reason does it not lol.

So as i say examining the pre-made commercial pulp more closely i have come to the conclusion that the manufacturer must be using a form of dried 'starch' more than likely a natural root or bulb (potato etc) form of starch at that. Again i feel this to be the case as a natural starch would not only better comply with health & safety being sold as part of a multi content mixture for public usage it more than likely bonds better to the fine cotton & paper pulp they use.

So when i get to experimenting again i will 'definately' be seeking out one or two starch's to use. When i made up my first early test batches using the commercial pulp the results were 'extremely promising' indeed. But that is for later for now i have too much going on. I thought you might like to know what was going on as regards to my own work & how others were trying it out. Call it encouraging the masses or calming the doubters lol.

More soon on my own experiments i promise lol.