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I'm a senior in high school and for our senior spirit week, we wanted to put a huge panther (our mascot) in our lunch room. Any suggestions on how to create a giant panther out of paper mache?
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There are lots of considerations here. How big? Standing? Hanging? Relief or "in the round"?
When that's all decided, you need to build the armature (skeleton), before getting to the papier mache.
Generally, PM is the way to go though, so you're on the way:)
You can build the armature out of chicken wire, styrofoam, cardboard, or scrunched up balls of paper. Perhaps if you gave us more of an idea of what you have in mind, we can give more informed answers?
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I'd like it to be sitting or kind of in an attack position. My mom offered to help and suggested chicken wire as the best skeleton. I'd like to assemble it in pieces that can be fitted back together so it'll be easier to transport into the school and reassemble. Hopefully, it'll be at least 12-15 feet tall at the highest point, maybe just about as long. The idea is to assemble it in the middle of the lunch room (whose entrance isn't that big), thus the size prohibiting it from simply being dragged out.
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Constructing it in various parts is going to be quite a complicated undertaking you know! I'd be too afraid to try that! Although someone else here may be able to suggest ways.
I guess you could make the thing whole first then cut it pieces, take it to school and reassemble?
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Welcome. Below is a link for the website Cockeyed.com. While it is not a papier-mache website per-se, the guy that runs it has made some pretty interesting sculpture using the medium. In his "Incredible Creations" section there are full how-to's on building an armature out of scrap wood and chicken wire and then using the layer-technique of paper mache to cover it. Most of his projects are people or human-like but the principles still apply to any animal. When you are done, I suggest browsing the rest of his site as I find it to be one of the most interesting I have come across.
Cockeyed.com Incredible Creations:
http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/incredible.html
You should particularly take a look at the Elvis, Satan, Ketchup Bear, and Alien projects as well as the Humming Bird.
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How funny! I stumbled across his site earlier before coming across this one, and I stayed the better part of an hour looking at all kinds of funny stuff. I skipped over the paper mache stuff he did (which, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have), but I'll definitely go back and look. Thanks!
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Does it really have to be that big? Most doorways are a minimum of 28" wide and 6'9" tall. It would seem more feasible to make one that would go through a doorway in one piece. That would still be a pretty big cat!
Another armature to consider might be garbage bags stuffed with crumpled newspaper, duct-taped into shape, then PM'd. Just make sure you keep everything firm, not floppy, or the contents could shift while you're working on it, and it could turn out looking like a pig or something.
Sue
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