Do It Yourself Projects.

Paper Mache, gypsum bandages, knitting yarns and other materials.

POPPETS in 10 steps.

The manual

Handmade poppets for interior design.

Step1: You may start from sculpting of goggle from any material. In this case - FIMO or, modelling clay. Place it on iron wire during the sculpting, trying to create some kind of "spinal cord":

Step 2: Fold or transform the iron wire in any way. They will use you for creation of arms and legs.

Step 3: Take a piece of masking tape (app. 3-4 cm length) and fix the potential arms & legs on a spinal cord. You may use a hot glue for their fixation.

Step 4: You may fix the arms and legs also by the gypsum bandage. There are not particular instructions for doing it. Try it in any way you prefer. After fixation you've got a poppet figure.

Step 5: For using the gypsum bandage - cut it into narrow strips (add. 2-3 cm wide). Wet the strips in a water and fix the arms and legs.

Step 6: I prefer to add some plasticine / modelling clay under the final sculpturing by the gypsum bandage, as shown below:

Step 7: Put the wet gypsum strips layer by layer, trying to give your poppet some shape.

Step 8: A small tip for making fingers: I use a hot glue, spreading it on a masking tape. After its hardening, I sketch a hand on the other side of the masking tape and cut it off, trying to find a right shape for the fingers.

Step 9: The poppet after modeling of its' arms and legs.

Step 10: The final step is the most creative and free: find any pieces of clothes, fabrics and knitting wires to create the poppet's hair and dress. Match it and fix it to the poppet by a hot glue. Use a wide range of colors, including acrylic, guash or a nail polish, for the painting of eyes, mouth and other details. I'll try to demonstrate one of the options in my further articles.

Meanwhile - Good luck and enjoy the process!

No Driving Alone

Me, My Witch, a Cat and, of course, a Broomstick 😉

A Box of Chocolates:

DIY birthday present for a friend

paper-mache project

Tools:

1. Keep empty paper rolls for reusing them again,

2. Hot Glue,

3. A plaster bandage,

4. Wood sticks for crafts,

5. Modelling clay.

The most complicated part for me was to find an appropriate narrative. I went on urban theme. (It always speaks to me. 😄). Of course, it should be something with funny occurrences, like chatting neighbors, a singing guy with a guitar or whatever feels you relevant.

So, after concept formulation use the paper roll for a house building. Make decision on it's length, color, style of windows and doors, place them on the roll and match the colors as you wish.

Any addition of street attributes will enrich your project. It could be a street light, a bench etc. Use them anywhere you choose. And, don't forget about the final composition and color matching.

The windows could be the most prominent part your house. You may look through the patterns on the Internet to choose the most suitable ones for your project. You can build them in levels, giving capacity to the frame.

After finishing the details, go for a roof. There are many possibilities to fix the roof on the roll. I've chosen to paste a thick circle of carton to the bottom of the roof. The radius of the circle matches the radius of the empty roll (for putting it in).

The dolls. Although sculpturing the dolls sounds as a complicated task, in fact it's all about your decision on proportion and body posture.

Make a simple skeleton using wood sticks or matches. Fix them by hot glue. Use modelling clay to give capacity to the parts of the body: arms, legs, body & face.

For the final step - wet the plaster bandages and cover them the body (including face). Leave the dolls to dry for 24-48 hours. (In winter it takes several days). For coloring you can use gouache or acrylic colors.

Don't forget to color the inside part of the roll. The best way to protect your project for a long time is to cover it by lacquer. Use matt or semi-gloss wood lacquer.

To the end - choose a fine chocolate to make your gift worth it.

Enjoy the process and share your ideas here or on social media!

A Witch House

Paper-Mache Project

The similar technique which was described above was used for the project of witch house. In fact, this technique can be used for various purposes in home styling.

As you see, this project was performed on barbecue wood sticks and can be fitted to a plant pot, putting it into a soil. I put it outside the entrance door, into a pot with an indoor plant (last floor of the building with a glasshouse effect. So, a sunlight passes through the windows during a day).

It's about a year since it was located there, and it seems we found a perfect matching to the plants.