THINGS TO COME MY WISH LIST IN A LITTLE MORE DETAIL

On the right is a wish list if things i hope to bring you on this blog. It's a list thats growing pretty fast too lol. So i thought i had better give some explination or a little more information of what i have in mind. So in no real order:

STARS & MOON MOBILE
Basically just that BUT all in 3D design. A large nursery rhyme style 3/4 moon with face & a selection of different sized stars dangling from it. The final size & amount of stars has yet to be decided but around 4/6 stars in all.

GIANT VASE WITH A CHINESE DRAGON WRAPPED AROUND IT
A giant fantasy design vase with a long bodied chinese dragon loosely wrapped around the vase from bottom to top. The vase will not be functional however.

MODIFYING MASKS & PAINTING THEM
Not everyone can make masks. Of course it's easy to just by a commercially sold mask then copy that. Doing that could land you in a serious copyright infringment law suit. With some very simple additions to the copy though you can easily change the copied mask into an entirely NEW design. I will show you some of my techniques on this.

COPYING MODIFYING A GIAN STYROFOAM SKULL
Just like the masks skulls are not something everyone can make. I will show you how to not only copy a large skull but also how to make a mask from it too.

BALL BEADS WITH READY MADE HOLES
As i have already shown you making simple elongated beads for jewelery is easy to do. But what about ball or 'bead' shaped ones? It's not as difficult as you may think.

REALISTIC EYE'S
I like to make dragons but mainly large dragon heads for wall mounting etc. The trouble is i then need custom eye's to fit these. Yes you can buy any number of high quality eye's online. What about golf ball or tennis ball sized eye's though? I have an idea to not only make the eye's as i always have but to also add the finishing touches to make the eye's even more realistic with the clear raised lens on the front of the eye too.

HOW TO BUILD A DRAGON
Having already shown you how to make realistic dragon wings i thought i might show you how to build the dragon to go with them. It's actually a project i have under way but this will be a when i have time to come back to it thing sadly.

REVIEWING DAN REEDERS LATEST PAPER MACHE BOOK
I have a large puppet in the works. You have seen him in here recently BONEY 'D. With his help i would like to do a video review of Dan's latest book. I am working hard on BONEY 'D, but sadly like my dragon build projects it's when time permits. So i can not say when this one will happen. Hopefully soon. I can not make any promises though.

Well thats as about as brief as i can be without typing out pages of rambling content lol. Remember this IS ONLY a wish list. Things will be added. Things will be removed. Things will be done in order of what & when time permits me as i have so many unfinished projects i am trying to dedicate time too. So anything i start on this wish list may or may not be in order of the actual list shown.

TRICKS & TIPS No.3

Just because a project is large or a difficult shape to hold in position when drying doe's not mean it has to involve rocket science to achieve such a simple task. Sometimes just a little string & masking tape combined with a cardboard tube can do just the job.

ONE OF MY DRAGONS BIT ME TODAY

Well that's me out of the PM'ing fun for a few day's. Because i start so many new projects before finishing others i have more than enough unfinished projects to keep me going for well lets just say quite some time. Thanks to so many i simply don't have the room to start anything more bigger than hand sized. Because i have so many projects to finish the only way i can finish them without getting bored i decided a while back the only way i could catch up with this massive task is to cycle through each unfinished projects a few at a time for a week or two then move on to the next batch. Today i am back on with my full dragons & i got a fair bit done too. I had just modyfied a dragon head that i want to plaster mold & copy for a series of similar styled dragons, about 6 or so of that same type. Whilst it's to one side drying ready to be copied in plaster i decided that i'd finish of some of the foil copied bodies i started some time ago.

That's when i saw red, litteraly. I had just cut open a foil copied body & instead of easing open the cut, pulling out my fingers then pulling it open further along. I went & ran my fingers along inside the cut foil & paper layers. Mercifully there are few to no nerves in the sides of the finger tips (I know this as i hate cut fingers so i jab my fingers on the sides to do my blood monitoring for my insulin). So before i felt anything a nice oval area around an inch & a half suddenly went red on the edges of the dragons body were my fingers were.

When i pulled my fingers out i discovered i'd just sliced my first finger on my left hand half way around about a centimeter from the end of the finger. A deep slice too. Sometimes i wonder if reduced feeling in my left arm & lack of nerves in the edges of the fingers IS such a blessing. It took a few minutes for the bleeding to stop so i knew i'd clipped a vein. One small mercy is the reduced feeling in that hand & the fact the cut is neat edged once the bleeding stopped i figured it should be closed up enough to use the finger safely without pulling the cut open too easily in a few days. The worst part is i was really enjoying working on my unfinished dragons again it's been a while. Oh well i suppose i should see this as a good time for a short rest until my finger knits a little. Either that or my dragon was having a go at me for leaving it so long & attacked me out of spite. Hmm i think i might call that one spite lol.

So for me it's down glue brush until the weekend at least possibly next week. My big question is now: When is this going to start hurting, it's quite a wide & deep slice so it WILL hurt eventually. I hate cuts on fingers agggggh!.

TRICKS & TIPS No.2

It's late at night you HAVE to get a project finished for a customer the next day. All the shops are closed. You NEED some hot glue & have run out. There IS a tiny piece of hot glue stick left in the gun but you just can't get it out what do you do?

The answer is simple.

Take a pencil or piece of dowl that fits comfortably in the end of the glue gun where the glue stick fits in.

Gently push in the pencil/dowl just as you would a new glue stick.

Now you can cary on for a few more moments getting that last piece of hot glue to finish up at bit more if not all what you needed to do.

It's as easy as that.

TAKE NOTE

DOING THIS MAY INVALIDATE ANY CURRENT WARRENTEES ON GLUE GUNS RECENTLY PURCHASED. THIS MAY ALSO CAUSE IRREPAIRABLE DAMAGE TO THE GLUE GUN WHICH 'COULD' LEAD TO SOME ONE SUFFERING AN INJURY. GLUE GUNS BURN BADLY. THIS TIP IS SOMETHING 'I' DO OFTEN & HAVE NEVER SUFFERED INJURY OR DAMAGED A GLUE GUN TO DATE. I AM HOW EVER 'NOT' STATING THIS SHOULD BE DONE BY RECCOMENDING IT AS A COMMON PRACTICE BY ANYONE READING THIS BLOG OR THIS POST IN PARTICULAR. ANYONE CARRYING OUT THIS TIP DOES SO UNDER THEY'RE OWN MIND & ACTIONS & THEREFORE SUFFER 'ANY' CONCIQUENCES THAT MAY OCCURE UNDER THEY'RE OWN ACTIONS - NOT MINE.

3D PAINTING WITH MY DRAGON SKIN PART 2

Some time ago when i first started sculpting with paper mache i decided that i wanted my sculptures to be as hollow as possible as well as wanting to work primarily with paper strips as apposed to just pulp. But i soon discovered i needed a LOT of layers to make the then large dragon heads i started making strong. I was using the same PVA glue i was using then as i do now as apposed to using traditional flour paste. Not that flour paste is bad, i just wanted things to dry as quickly as possible since working mostly with strips takes longer. One day i hit on the idea of how much stronger would flour paste be if i added PVA glue to it?

Not only did it supass my expectations in strength it was also extremly light weight once dry too. I quickly found i could work with as few as 6/8 layers of strips & 3 1mm thick layers of dragon skin. The standard news print i still use became as strong as 10/15 layers of paper for every 6/8 layers i used with a 1mm coating of dragon skin. Since i was working on dragon heads this is why it got this name by the way.

I soon realised i could do much more with my dragon skin too. As seen here you can paint in a 3D fashion with it. Since dragon skin dries in around 15 minutes (fan assisted) you can quickly & very easily build up a 3D effect painting.

It then occured to me if i can 3D paint with it i could then use this technique to easily add finer details to my sculptures without then having to add card & paper or foil to make the fine detailing. Making skulls was my first attempt at doing this as seen below. Here is a skull axe in the early stages of enhancement with dragon skin as a 3D paint.

My dolphin figure/body which i am currently using to plaster cast a mold from was also created using dragon skin. If you are following that feature you will know it only took 10 layers of 'bone mix' dragon skin to create the dolphin. Bone mix dragon skin is simply dragon skin with around a 3rd more PVA glue added to it to create, well a bone hard & smooth finish.

ANOTHER LARGE ORNIMENTAL DISH PROJECT UPDATE

Four of my ornimental large dishes are now waiting for final painting. The time how ever is taking a slow run as i am trying to think up something not so much difficult but unique that i haven't tried in a while or at all. Something i barely dabbled with many years ago was creating a marble texture. So for the first two dishes i figured okay why not go with contrasting pair of marble effect but with opposite marbled finish. one black on white & one white on black. I have included what i 'hope' to create in the small RED box next to each corrisponding dish. Whether or not i can do it is another matter. One way is to use feathers to create the marble texture with inks being the best choice for painting.

One i don't have any feathers & don't intend to by some just for this. Two i don't have the required inks either & again i have no intentions of buying any just for this one off attempt. So it's all down to some water based paints, a steady hand some permenant markers some sponges & the trick i used for the blood shot eye. All combined into one massive do or die attempt lol. Hopefully this weekend will be the time for this huge leap in painting it right or failing miserably lol. I will post the results as soon as i give it a go.

LARGE PUPPET WIP - BONEY 'D UPDATE

My large puppet BONEY 'D has been getting a bit more attention today. Here he is with his upper arms attached & his first 'under coat' of white paint.

More BONEY 'D as it happens - Soon.

MAKING A REALISTIC LOOKING DRAGON WING

Here is a simple method to making a dragon wing. You can make the wing as large or as small as you require just follow the simple build instructions below.

To begin cut some stiff card stock for the 'arm section or skeleton frame of the wing. Cut two into the shape or position of the wing you want. Make them the same or slightly different for effect.

ALWAYS do a size test.

Now add some support to the card. I use wooden or bamboo skewers for this. They are light, flexable but very strong once embedded into the project such as this.

Now 'bulk' out the arm using foil. Remember to 'compact' the foil as hard as you can for strength.

Then cover the arms in a few layers of paper strips.

Now we need to make the 'fingers' or strut supports for the wings 'skin' covering.

Once again i am going to use wooden or bamboo skewers covered in foil to bulk them out & add some definition to them.. Don't forget to add some knuckle joints to these. I forgot. For larger wings you can use large plastic straws, or tightly rolled paper. What ever you use again cover these in a few layers of paper strips.

Once you have them all done & dry start to attach to the arms & fix in place.

Even without the 'skin' you can see the wing emerging from the build. Using skewers makes attaching the fingers eaiser.

Now to add the 'skin'. Work from the fingers down FIRST. We need to 'pull' the skin in between the fingers as we go. If we worked from the arm/shoulder section first the skin may not sit right over the fingers. If you are making a textured finish (which i will show you how to do) then having to splice in an extra section of skin won't show through the final build. But if you are going for smooth leather effect wing skin then we need to do this in a single sheet of paper. So start at the fingers FIRST. Apply a good layer of glue.

Brown parcel wrapping paper makes superb leathery, smooth or wrinkled, strong yet flexable skin for wings. I prefer the waxed on one side only kind as this soaks up the glue at a nice even pace. The wax coating also helps to hold the paper together whilst i manipulate it between the fingers etc. Now BEFORE the glue dries too much with your fingers rub the skin into over & between the wing fingers one at a time. Hold down the previous section as you go or it will pull free as you work along the fingers. An un-diluted glue will dry much faster making this task much easier & faster to do.

STILL working on the fingers section use a slightly watery glue mix & work the skin in & around the fingers more to define the fingers through the skin.

Now carefully so not to disturb the fingers section you just did, peel back the lower or shoulder section of the skin & repeat the glue adding as will the finger rubbing method.

Again work the wrapping paper around & down over the arm as you did with the finger section earlier.

Again repeat the working in of the watery glue mix.

Now leave this to FULLY dry. It HAS to be fully dry so when you turn it over to do the other side when you rub the wrapping paper down you will stick the wing to your work surface if still sticky. When you try to lift it you will damage the wing possibly beyond repair.

Once FULLY dry you can trim off some of the 'excess' paper ONLY. Do not try to cut & shape the wing just yet as you will have to then do it all over again after you build the opposite side. Also cutting & shaping the entire wing in one go will make it easier if you have to make adjustments to the final shape. If you cut & shape the single side you just made now then you may be left with an uneven sided wing skin that may show up in the final project ruining the design & effect of the wing skin.

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Now turn the wing over & repeat ALL the steps i have previously shown you 'exactly as before. When you turn the wing over if you did it right then the ribs or fingers ass shown below only have skin coming down over half way on all sides.

When you have done both sides of both wings (or more if you are making more). Once FULY dry NOW you can cut & trim the wings to the final shape.

As i said earlier left like this once painted this will ressemble a great leather like skin wing. But what if you want to have an ancient wrinkled skin wing? Well here is a very simply trick to making that effect too. Take some cheap X2 ply tissues. The cheaper the better, they wrinkle much better than the expensive tissues. Tear off all the edges of the tissues. Then lay each double tissue onto the wing surface 'DRY'. DO NOT add ANY glue to the wing surface at all. The tissue is thin enough to allow enough glue to soak through to make it stick in place. This has the effect also of making the tissue wrinkle more & conform to the shape as you move it around if required as you work. DO NOT brush hard or more than you need to. Once the tissue is wet it WILL begin to wrinkle. Once the wrinkles show 'back off' do not brush it any more.

The tissue WILL appear to go translucent at first but WILL dry white again later. You CAN do more than one layer if you like but i found that above 2 layers the wrinkles begin to thin out & are less effective. Try to keep it 2 layers or less if you can. ANY missed sections or knocked loose sections CAN be repaired at any time when wet or dry by simply adding a new small piece of tissue over the damaged or missing section(s).

Try not to overlap too much when layering on the tissue, but if you can not help it try to make the overlaps irregular. This WILL be lost to the painting later.

There you have it a simple dragon wing. To make a demon wing simply add a few spikes to the 'top' joints of the wing arm. Or a birds wing simply add some feathers paper or real to the
wings surface. Either way a little imagination goes a long way.

5 MINUTE QUICKIES #9 ART DOLL OR MARIONETTE BALL & SOCKET JOINTS

String or wire hooped joints on string puppets are perfect for easy moving flowing joints. Especially for fast moving dancing puppets. What if you wanted a more smooth yet sill fluid joint though how could you achieve that? Simple take a leaf out of natures book of designs thats how & make a 'true' ball & socket joint thats how. The same joint can be tightened to make an art doll have moving & fixable poses too. Here's how to do it.

Take a ball of any size that fits your project then cover both in paper strips 6/8 should be more than sufficient, add more if you wish. I made one darker than the other here for no ther reason other than making the pictures easier to understand. Do not forget to add some kind of limb 'anchor' points to 'both' the ball & the 'socket' for limb attachment later. To keep the joints as light as possible especially for string puppets cut the 'ball' out of the joints when dry. If the joints are small then this won't be a requirement anyway.

Now cut the top off one of them around a quarter of the top you can remove more if this is not enough. Try NOT to remove too much at first or you will have to make an entirely NEW 'socket' joint if you cut too much off at first.

Now cut 2 slits into it on opposite sides around a third of the way down from the cut open edge.

Now simply slip the 'socket' over the 'ball'. The 'split' WILL open slightly do not be concerned this IS meant to happen. Unless you did not make the slit deep enough there should be no problems no matter how many layers of strips you added to the joints.

If you are making a string puppet then leave this split loose at this next stage. If you are making an art doll that you want to pose later then pull the split a little tighter at this next stage. Now take some tape & seal over the splits pulling the splits as tight as required for the type of project i just mentioned.

Make sure you have the 'entire' split covered.

Now test the joint gently.

Ease the joint straight then in a single go pierce a hole clean through the joint. ONLY do this NOW as the balls WILL be weak on the sides especially the one that you cut the top off. Doing this NOW means you have better support across the outter surface of BOTH balls for this step. I prefer a large cross head screw driver myself but YOU use what ever YOU are comfortable with.

Now tape a length of nylon cord to a wooden skewer or something similar (long & thin). Then feed this through the ball & socket joint.

Knot up one end or attach something that will not slip through. Pull the cord 'snugg' then fix it tight in place.

When it comes to joints for string puppets then as this joint slackens off with wear it will become a smooth action joint which will give the puppet a much more natural look to it's movements. Of course you want the joints to remain stiff for an art doll which you can still pose too. So for an art doll replace the nylon cord with small but strong elastic bands to maintiain a snugg grip to the joint(s). Either way the nylon cords or elastic bands will keep the joint together even if it falls apart at some stage until you can repair or replace the joint.