DAN REEDER 'IGNITES' IN SEATTLE

A much anticipated event finally came home to Seattle the home town for Dan Reeder paper cloth mache artist, friend & idol of mine. These talks are short, fast, but often great fun. Dan gets his point across with his normal flare & humour. Why not have a look for yourself right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KRxGJy4sEA&aia=true.

THE 'CUTTING' EDGE OF PAPER MACHE

Just about done for today (got to tidy away agggggh!), too sore & tired to sit here anymore lol. I have however just finished drawing up 2 more 'pairs' of custom sword blades. These are slightly shorter than the first two custom swords shown below in the last post (what i did this weekend). These are more intended more for double handed close quarter combat/battle with more sweeping style ornate blades. Unlike the first two that are individual swords, the two i just drew up are matching 'twin' blades . I also finished off the drawing out of a commissioned sword too. This is  HUGE sword at around 5ft long & is the anime' character Ichigo from Bleech's sword.

I will post pictures of the new swords on the wall (now that a couple came down for further work earlier) tomorrow. Just too sore & tired to do the deed today lol.

I was supposed to go to the bank yesterday to sort out swapping banks so i could 'online-bank' but i only go out the house 1 day a month as a rule & just did not feel like wasting part of my day sitting  having some snotty nosed bank clerk fill out a form so i could change banks. B (Barbara my wife) said not to worry she'd make a new appointment & go up the street & sort it for me next week. Soon after i can start selling some work. I am going to have to get my act together & get things ready for selling eh lol.

Anyway off now back tomorrow. I bought myself a couple of DVD movies to watch yesterday: Watchmen & Avatar so fun viewing in store for me lol..

Enjoy.

WHAT I DID THIS WEEKEND - 08/09 MAY

Sleep. so help me i  need regular sleep. Not getting to bed until some nights (most) 3am. Not sleeping well & waking &  rising early due to pain 24/7 thanks to my dissabilities is slowing me down no end. I meant get this posted yesterday (Tuesday) but then thanks to sleep loss did not realise it was my 1 day a month out the house (mostly to get art  supplies) so i am posting this now - late again!. Right enough moaning & blame side stepping & rambling lol.

So this weekend gone what did i get up to then?

Well to begin with i finaly decided on a colour scheme for my first of many to come dragon vases. I have decided to go with a golden dragon  with a golden trim around the top of the vase rim as well as around the small base too.  I taped off the rim & painted the dragon & rim. Around the dragons upper half i intend to paint a crude (oval) section of scenery including some sky & clouds which will give way to a black back drop/background around/over the rest of the vase. The vase stands at around 49.5cms tall as will most of them when done.

I still have to make the embossed symbol for 'dragon' for the reverse side yet.

The base of the vase is simply two 2mm thick cardstock discs glued together, then 2 matching 2mm doughnut discs glued to those first two. I then trimmed all in 140gsm paper & then 2 layers of news print strips.

Next came my small custom swords (under a meter long) which are similar to a design i found online & altered to suit my liking. These were mapped & cut out of some 2mm cardstock sheets i am managing to get my hands on from my local super store (ASDA). Other than layng these flat & laying weights on them there is NO way of preventing these from warpping baddly making them usless as the swords i intend them to be. also i simply do not have the working space or any large wooden sheets to make them on. So i am like all my swords from now on making them on the wall.

To maintin a flat working surface i simply 'pinned' the blades to the wall using drawing pins (thumb tacks). I then coated the whole surface with 2 layers of news paper strips. I will cover these again in 3 later of 80gsm white printer paper. Once dry i will flip these over & repeat. Once all that is dry i can then get to work on building up the shape of the blades proper.

Next came my two sword 'half' blades which will only be that & around a meter long (a little over full measurments later), 1 side of a sword blade (each). They will become a sword styled wall mount for dragon heads. Unlike the small custom swords these will be built up with 2 layers of news paper & a layer of 140gsm paper then news paper again. I will repeat this untill i have 3 layers of news paper & 3 layers of 140gsm paper. Once fully dried they will be flipped over on the wall & the backs will get around 6 layers of 140gsm paper over a core layer of 2mm thick cardstock.

With 'spaced' screws to fix them to the wall when finished they should create a working wall mount for the large dragon heads. More on this another time though. 

My dragon slayer (broad swords) blades were taken down off the wall & then joined together tacking them together with masking tape until the PVA glue dried the two halves together. Once dried i removed the masking tape then sealed the whole blades in turn in 2 layers of news paper. Once this is fully dried i will then give each sword blade around 3/4 layers of white 80gsm printer paper, then sand into shape. Then i will work on the top setion of the word so they can be mounted onto thier respective hilts. When completed they will be a little over a meter long. Again as with the sword wall mounts full measurments later when finished.

Next came Sharky's (Troll Screamer give away prize Troll) sword. This is based loosely on a 19th century naval boarding cutlass. I have left off the 'finger' guard section as unfortunatley at the time i had no idea just what type of cutlass to give Sharky so did not in the end allow for the finger guard to slide over his large troll fingers. The real naval 19th centuray boarding cutlass shown below:

This is the first of 2 large dragon heads. The first of which i started this weekend gone. Here it is only at the armature stage, quite devoid of any real defining features. They will follow very soon. At the moment i am merely working on building up of the heavier facial features first before adding the finer details to it later. Like each of the mounting sword barckets i will explain more & show how this is to be fastend to the sword(s)/wall later. The dragon head(s) are around 3ft or so snout to back of head/kneck in height.

Below a front view

I have also been trying to find the lost time i was spending on a project for an artist friend. Sadly such is my nature of working i start something then get side tracked. This last few weeks of growing sleep loss & constant pain build up have only added to my getting behind in promised custom projects of wich i now claim fame to 4 of. More on ALL of these soon. For now how ever that is what i got up to this weekend gone. Who knows perhaps NEXT weekends regular post feature just might, note i say might be posted on time lol.

WIP WATCH UPDATED

WIP watch has just been updated with 3 new WIPs (5 new images) for your enjoyment. More soon.

EVERYTHINGS RUNNING AS SMOOTHLY AS EVER - SO I APPOLOGISE

Firstly where'd the dam week go - again?

Hmm i think i better explain something before i go explaining myself here i think. Some years back now i got the back of my head ripped open with a moutain bicycle seat (the metal clamp underneath) The results of which if i get too angry or stressed out i TOTALLY lose that day!. I mean gone nadda NO memory of it. As a result NOW my weeks can be as long (or short) as only three days. My average year is only seven to eight months long would you believe?

Anyway this weekends post is late again partly down to it (i think) being a stressful week & partly down to what i have been creating needed time to dry out before i could go moving it all around to take pictures of. So as a result 'what i did this weekend' WILL still be here, but later today - I do appologise for this folks. If you would all kindly forgive me i will go now & get to sorting things out for this weekends work posting so i can move on with projects & posts for this coming week.

DAN REEDERS NEW FORUM - ALL ABOUT THE PIGS

Dan Reeder the fantastic paper mache 'cloth' artist father of the orignal monster screamers, many many dragons & other wonderful monsters of many forms has at last let loose on the world something that has been on his mind for a while now.

Dan has never ceased to amaze & break new ground with his creations & for some time has been a mache artist idol of mine too. Dans latest forum offering takes his works to a new level how ever. Dan like many of us in our own respective countries has become enraged at not just the 'corperate machine' but the corrupted corperate machine in it's many shapes & forms. It's not the actual machine itself that Dan's enraged at however it is those greedy money hungry people who are driven by nothing less than utter selfish greed & with no care for the little people who suffer under this regiem who have Dan enraged. Tell you what here is a quote from Dan himself to explain it better:

"This blog is about pigs, but of the immoral, greedy, human variety. This blog is dedicated to those who have enriched themselves (sometimes obscenely so) at the expense of everyone around them. I see these people profiled on the news and I get angry. But what am I to do? With money comes
power. They have piles of money. And they have armies of lawyers defending their castles. So what can any of us little people do? I’ve decided to launch my own small protest with the skills I possess. Since I’m a paper mache artist, it seemed appropriate to portray these people as they really are. Pigs. Oink, Oink, Oink!"

Dan HAS launched not only his new forum but also has added the first of many paper mache cloth pig creations & will be adding a NEW pig each month.

So who is first to feel Dan's wrath then. Well i am not going to spoil it here you are going to have to go over to Dan's new forum to find that out for yourself lol. You can go there & leave a comment too by clicking here: http://papermachepigs.com/.

TRICKS & TIPS No.5

When casting in plaster especially in ordinary plaster you HAVE to remember to make the thickness of the plaster molding a little thicker than you normaly require around the subject to be cast.

Take my Troll Screamers for instance. Great fun to make & you would think extremely simple because of their size. Yet the hands & feet by the very nature of the shapes of them they can be a little time consuming to do, especially if you need two or three pairs at a time. With time in mind i decided to cast a set of hands & feet in plaster rather than the normal foil copying method i use for the body, legs, faces etc. Whilst i need to make two complete feet (left & right) both upper & lower foot seperately for each single foot. The hands can simply be flipped over after being cast from a single hand casting (two halves of one hand).

Unfortunately for me on one side of the hand i didn't add enough plaster to the mold & the result was a thinner half mold section than was viable to use. By that i mean when i opened the mold the thin section snapped in half!. All is not always lost though as you can see below:

The PVA glue i use has many uses everything from basic glue to wall (dry wall) plaster sealer before painting to reduce plaster cracking etc, wood glue & much more. Mercifully the snap in my plaster casting was a very clean crisp edged snap. So using undilluted PVA glue i bonded the two halves together then wrapped & glued a cardstock case/support around it. To add even more strength to the repaired casting i then ran a strip of the thinnest paper i had over the join (telephone book paper) then sealed the whole surface in again undilluted PVA glue.

Whilst it now looks ugly & unproffessional it WILL work perfectly allowing me to create many many dozens of pairs of Troll Screamer hands before i have to go & make a complete new set of castings as i would at 'some pont' in the future anyway.

WHAT I DID THIS WEEKEND - 01/02 MAY

To make sure i have something 'reguar' to post since i have been trying to get things finished/repaird to sell (soon if i can) i just can't guarantee that i have something worthy of posting on a regular basis. So i have decided to run a little what i did on the weekend regular feature. Unfortunately 'this' weekend i have been hit by a stomach bug (hit me Friday gone) so i didn't actually get much done. As a general rule though my little weekend feature should be more interesting after this first outting. So without any further rambling here is the first weekend feature installement for you.

My sword blades moved on to the next stage. This time i added a single strip of 140gsm grade brown packing paper. It is still classified as paper but it is very close to very thin cardstock too. You can find this stuff laying between kitchen or toiletry rolls in stores. Would you believe our branch of ASDA actually throw all paper/plastic wrapping & boxed waste in a in store furnace? Yet they sell many enviromentally friendly goods. Most stores are happy for you to just take these sheets as long as your not messing up the shelves too much lol. They can vary from 1 Meter square to larger this IS a valuable paper stock for most art forms believe me.

Each strip was glued in place with undiluted PVA (white glue). Before they dried i then wiped the surfaces down with 50% PVA glue & 50% water soloution to slow down the drying process slightly. The theory being the thicker glue underneath will soak into the thick paper slowly whilst the watery mix will soak in faster but dry faster too being exposed to the air up on the wall as they are, thus sealing the surface & slowing down the drying & reducing the warpping effects that will naturally occure.

Two new sword blades went up on the wall too. They are similar to a design i saw that someone had drawn so these are still in the cutting & altering stage to make them more of my own design when finished. I will go into more detail as to how i am gong to create the heavy angular cutting blade edges on these when i get to that stage soon (next weekend probably).

I have been working on some 'blank' dragon head designs that i can then copy, mass copy but then change in minute ways to make each NEW head very different. Above are two that were initially designed for a sword hilt but also a stand alone head for a full bodied dragon(s) too.

Again another dragon head but also my original dolphin form & a latex creepy skull form. Both sets of dragon heads etc will be cast in plaster for mass production just as soon as i can persuade someone to mix & pour the plaster for me lol.

So as i said not much going on this weekend. I was hoping to get to my first dragon head sword hilt this weekend too but sadly this stomach bug has left me somewhat pre-occupied so to speak. Well i am off to watch some movies one of my sons brought around with him & his girlfriend (the one I am making the mask for. His girlfriend is the one in the sidebar FINISHED PROJECTS she is the one in the red dress wearing the small devil wings).

So i am off more soon.

JUST A QUICK NOTE

Just a quick note to say i AM still here & working like crazy to get things done. I have been side tracked recently whilst working on a project for an artist friend (more on that another time - still in the works). Sadly this has had me side tracked for a little time & will for another week at least.

I alongisde that am trying to get unfinished projects, well finished so i can move up to selling some of my work. Until recently issues with my current bank & online payment methods (couldn't create any online payment methods ie: PayPal etc) because my current bank is well crap! (For those in the UK am currently with Northern Rock -Say no more eh!). I AM currently under the process of switching banks to rectify the problems my current bank causes.

That along with my family breaking or destroying everything i make i have been trying to asses what can be fixed to sell & what i want to even try to fix to sell. Not to mention the previously mentioned unfinshed projects ahem!.

Remember my wall mounted grim reaper project (in my sidebar finished listing):

Well this is him NOW:

This is the kind of damage i am having to deal with on many of my finshed projects as well as trying to get projects finshed too. I put this guy at the bottom of the main stairs hoping my saying NO RUNNING DOWN THE STAIRS would keep him safe. Well you can see how much i get listened too eh. Mercifully not all my finished projects look like this but those that are damaged are to this extent.

Essentially I AM STILL HERE & working like crazy to getting more tips, tricks & how too's sorted both here & on YouTUbe for you all. I can only ask That you be patient with me during the extremely busy time. I WILL Get to posting more very soon.

DRAGON SLAYER WEAPONS - MAKING THE SWORD BLADES PART 2

Okay now the plastic straws are locked in place time to make the actual blade shapes stand out more a very simple & straight forward process. This can be used to create any sword blade no matter the size or shape reqired.

I then cut serial box cardstock to the width of each 'angled edge' (the cutting edge) of the blades. I only cut these to fit from the 'outer edge' of the straws on each side of the blades NOT all the way across the middle section of each blade. I want to keep the 'hollow centeral groove' the straws created there. Then using the straws as a guide i tacked these card strips in place down the length of the sword blades until they met the start of the points creating an angled cutting edge like a real sword has.

I then cut out some arrow head like points. I also cut out a matching U shape  in these to the match the width of the groove running down the center of the sword blades which the plastic straws created for me. I then tacked down ALL the 'outer edges' with masking tape. This will not only hold it all in place but will also help it keep this shape when i start to add some paper strips later as it all dries out.

To create a curved edge that matches the groove down the blades center i simply used some half inch masking tape to create the filled in curve effect shown above. I will use this 'same' trick when i attach the hilts later. The blades are NOW ready to be paper striped over to make them rigid & strong. I will get on with the next stage shortly & show you the next stage adding the hilt etc later. I will be stripping over the blades using only 80gsm white A4 printer paper. Once dried fully this WILL make an extremely strong blade trust me.

DRAGON SLAYER WEAPONS - MAKING THE SWORD BLADES PART 1

So time to make some large sword blades.

The easiest way i find to make large sword blades is to make the baldes in 2 parts front & back on a large wall. If you are short on space this is an ideal trick to know lol.  First of all i drew out the blade shapes, the outlines anyway on several pages of A4 paper. These i then taped together minus the 'hilt' sections i will explain why not that bit later. Next i used some 1 meter long plastic straws to create a central 'hollow ridge' that runs down the length of each sword. You can see the coloured straws in the picture above, both in the foreground & on the wall.

Next i paper mache stripped over the straws just to hold them in place with just 1 layer of news print strips.

From left to right: The first 2 blades are going to be as they are seen here, just half blades. WHY? Well these are going to be 'disguised' wall mount brackets for a couple of large wall mounted dragon heads (if i ever get them finished that is). There will be NO wood, wire or any other kind of metal strips or supports in these 'half' blades ONLY paper. Because i work to as much a hollow & light weight form as i can. Along with the fact the weight will run 'down' the wall & the half sword blades. The weight of the dragon head WILL be spread out 'down' the wall & the half sword blade(s). That is a project for another time. I am only making these half sword brackets NOW since i am making swords anyway lol.

The next 4 blades are actually only '2' blades in reality - Front & back remember?

Next time i will exlain HOW i intend to create the sword blade shape 'whilst' keeping the whole blade holow & still strong too.

DRAGON SLAYER WEAPONS - SWORD UPDATE

Both the axe & the swords of these weapons are to have 'embossed' dragons on them such a the type on my vases are to have, shown below are a couple of the types of dragons i will be using on the blades.

But more on these later. For now i want to talk about the changes i have & am making to the hilt to the first sword so far.

As you can see as mentioned before i changed the snouts (rounded them off) & now have added a few horns to both dragons.

Here it is close up:

As you can probably see too i am adding teardrop diamonds for the eyes of these dragons too. I have to work on the horns a little to shape them but i also have to build around the eyes too. I will be using pizza box card stock to do this later.

I will also be adding some standard shaped diamonds for a spaced ring around the outside of the pomel hasp too. Both types of diamonds are shown below. Sorry for the fuzzy picture unfortunately my pain tollerance levels for standing were exceeded by the time i got this far.

More soon

NEW MASK - UPDATE

I finally got my sons NEW half face mask finished but forgot to get any pictures of him wearing it when he was here yeterday (Sunday). He & his girlfriend normally stay over night on Sundays but we did not fnd out until about an hour before they left that he had to be up early so they were not staying over.

I still have the mask here as he forgot to take it with him when they left. So the minute he pops in again as he sometimes does through the week i WILL get some pictures & post them imediately for you all to see it being worn. It goes without saying he IS well pleased with the final mask design.

For now here are a couple of mask shots to look at.

DRAGON SLAYER WEAPON WEEKEND AHEAD

Over this weekend (starting today) i have decided to down tools on ALL work on unfinished & current projects to work on some 'dragon slayer weapon' related WIPs that i started ages ago but but the inspiration for which dried up on me. I had put a hold on ALL dagon slayer WIPs until i could find the inspiration for a particular one of my large swords i was working on. The original WIP below.

I just couldn't get a working theme for the dragon heads on the hand guard. Even mounting it for safety & hopefully inspiration as i passed by it dozens of times a day did not help. Then yesterday it finally came to me how they wanted to look. The NEW look dragons (partially finished) below.

When i make a dragon head i like to let the initial shape go the way it wants to go. Then i refine the look later. Unless i have a specific desgin in mind i always (no matter the size of the dragon head create a pointed snout. On the new look gaurd here i have removed the pointed snouts (rounded them off) & have begun to add some horns. All i have to do now is add 2 more horns then the finer details such as eyes & surrounding flesh lids etc, but you can see where it is going now at least.

I did already start a large blade for this sword but it was made from some left over paper pulp i had & well i don't like it anymore. ALL these weapons are to be to full scale BUT!, i don't want to make them so they can be swung for any reason. So i am making them ALL in such a way whilst they ARE strong in theyre construction they WILL break if used as weapons even in fun play. They WILL how ever be able to be swung once or twice at force before they'd break (the blades 'slot' into the hilts). So with  this in mind i am not going to use pulp on the replacement blade for this or any of the other swords i have planned.

Amongst these dragon slayer weapons are more swords as i say but i also want to make some axes too. Below is an axe i started so long ago now i forget how long ago it actually was now. The skull on this axe is extremely strong as i was trying out some new techniques at the time. Instead of making a NEW skull each time i simply incorperated the ideas 'over' the original skull.

The blade to this axe is solid but not with pulp. It is in fact several layers of pizza box card stock. Again whilst my axes will be solid construction (the axe blades are fixed in place) I am going to make them all hollow from now on too. If you remember a while back i mentioned i was going to make around 80 to 100 skulls? Some of those skulls are for these weapons. By making so many skulls in this way i won't end up making them so 'solid' which will make these weapons dangerous in the wrong hands even if they are just paper mache.

So thats whats going on here at Darkside HQ this weekend & possibly all next week too. I should have a few of these weapons at a finished state awaiting painting by next weekend to show you all.

GREAT NEWS MARZEL!

Great news at last Marzel. Your gift is on the way. It was posted today & should be with you anywahere from 1 to 2 weeks from now. I hope you like it & can find a small place to hang it when it arrives. I honestly think it is the ugliest thing i ever made, but then it was only to try out a tissue pulp recipe/experiment lol.

I know i put the right address on it, but if it does not reach you for some unknown reason i didn't put a return address on the parcel so it will go missing for real this time lol. You will know it has arrived when a shoe box (literally lol) sized parcel in brown wrapping paper with a large white hand written label arrives. Sorry for the delay in the sendng too.

DAM THIS PC

My PC has been playing silly billies with me this last week so have a lot of catching up to do.  I am STILL installing software & won't be back online until tomorrow fully. But should be online later for a while. For any blog updates i have missed so far give me a little time guys & i will get to you.

LET THE BUNNY TIMES ROLL

Happy easter everyone i hope this special weekend is as chocolate filled bunny-tastic as you hoped it would be. Don't be eating too may chocolates in one go though will you lol.

GIANT CLAM SHELL BUILD - PART 3

I am going to have to stop saying what i have planned or what i have coming up next in my blog here & everywhere else, why? Everytime i plan something or promise something when the day comes to do it - life gets in the way!. So no more rambling (before life gets in the way again) here at last is the short video on HOW TO build your clam shell armature.



I have improved the temlates for the segments slightly by refining the shape a little more & adding the longer claw like 'peeks' too. Simply right mouse click then 'save picture as' just as before to grab a copy of the template. Then print off 5 or 6 of each sizes (re-size to suite YOUR project) then as before glue this onto some cardstock, cut out & follow the video above. You will not need ALL the 'peeks' on the templates. Simply build first then remove unwanted 'claw-like peeks later by trimming them off.

The NEW improved template:



















On finally doing the short video for this it occured to me just how to make a more realist giant clam armature. I have more than enough of the materials i need for the new design. Sadly i wont have time to show it to you for a little while i have too much to do right now. I will just as soon as i can how ever.

Below is a close up image a of real giant clam so you can have some idea of how to modify YOUR clam shell. I suggest pulp might be the best option to 'enhance' the armature i have shown you how to make.

So for now have fun. I would love to see any results people have with this first armature version. I won't publish or make public in anyway pictures or videos anyone sends me to look at unless you say i can. Remember have fun art SHOULD be fun.

AN OLD PROJECT LOST & FOUND NOW IT'S GOING!

Congratulations MARZEL he will be in the post as soon as i can possibly get him in there. Make sure to hang him on the wall quick as he likes to go off hidding lol.

AN OLD PROJECT LOST & FOUND NOW I WANT IT GONE!

Some time ago now i was experimenting with tissue pulp to see how strong, versitile & light it might be. Since at the time i had Sluggich my first Troll Screamer bouncing around in my head. So when i made up some tissue pulp i came up with this guy.

I meant to hang him on the wall but never did he kept going missing then reappearing again. I only just found him behind my desk of all places today after dropping something else down there. NOW looking at him i find him to be quite the ugliest thing i have ever made lol. He is around 3 ounces in weight,  23cm tall, 12.5cm wide, 8.5cm deep. His finish is a dark 'aged' metalic bronze effect & is ready to mount straight on a wall.

So why mention him if i think he is ugly etc then?

Well i basically i want rid of him. He was only after all a test piece/experiment for tissue pulp. So ANYONE who wants him can have him. Whilst i don't think he is good enough to put up for sale i don't just want to throw him in the trash either. So if you want him just let me know. The FIRST name & address i get, gets him. DO NOT post your land address in the comments here. ONLY send your land address by EMAIL. You can contact me here: jontytheghoul@btopenworld.com.

I won't be able to pop him in the post for about 2 weeks as the postage will be coming out of my own pocket & i only get paid every 4 weeks (2 to go). There is no time limit on this as he is not going aywhere, today at least lol.