Sophie, the principal of what you are doing is sound, you may not have left yourself enough time before the launch though.  Although if you can devote a week the following may well work

What you will need to do is layer your balloons with a lot of layers of paper, in the case of this I would break the unspoken rules and just use PVA, it sets hard and will dry fairly fast.  If you have the patience, layer once with newspaper and PVA and then leave for about 1/2 an hour,  Come back and do the same thing again, leave, and so on until you have built yourself up about 7 or 8 layers.  That should give you enough rigidity to glue together the head and jaw and then layer over that with at least one more layer.  Then you can add the pulp.  for things like eyes, ridges etc use armatures of cardboard wherever possible as it will be faster than waiting for solid pulp to dry.

Have a look at my gallery page
http://www.papiermache.co.uk/gallery/item/7021/

this was made using a cardboard armature and layers of newspaper, before painting and varnishing.  It is in a smaller scale than you are proposing but the principal is the same.  I built up the eye sockets using balled up newspaper, very tightly scrunched and the ridge using an old cereal packet.

For a nice strong laminate you can use a layer of newspaper and then a layer of kitchen towel and then another of newspaper and so on. I am not sure why this works but it does.  Also I would make sure that you varnish the finished piece using Yacht varnish/marine varnish.  It gives another layer of rigidity and will protect your dragon's head from rain.

Best of luck.
Charlotte

Last edited by newmodeller (2007-07-03 12:46:01)

newmodeller - thank you so much! That is brilliant, I'll do as you say, and hopefully we'll have a workable dragon by the 20th I think it's almost ready for sticking the bits together, as soon as this layer dries. I do indeed have a week, I'm home for the summer holidays, so I have time to devote to it
That is an ace dragon, I like how it's a puppet

CatPerson - a fan is drying my paper mache as we speak! thanks for the tip


Thank you both, I'll post again when I've got something worth showing

Sophie

Wow, I can't believe you are new to papier mache. That is fantastic. I love the painting you did on it. Are you planning to take it up as a hobby now? I'd love to see some more stuff from you. Great work!

What a FANTASTIC job! Absolutely brilliant, as Harry would say.

Superb paint job, too.

I can't wait to see what your next piece of work will be.  A lifesized replica of Hogwarts???

Sue

Sophie-

YOU'RE NEW AT THIS!?!?!?! I think you've found your calling. Fantastic paint job, as well. I am sooooooo jealous. You must have been the hit of the evening.

I had intended to crochet Mrs Weasley's sleeves for a costume, but ran out of time (or was it inclination?). My kids got dressed up (we went to a Grand Hallows Ball) and had fun waiting around for 4 hours or so..then spent the next 2 days reading (which was easier to do 10 years ago!) Sad to see it end but it's been great fun - especially these days when there is so much negativity in the world. How cool to see the kids (and us old folk) excited about something positive- and a BOOK, no less.

I second the suggestion of the model of Hogwarts (don't think life size, though - hahahaha). Or a special HP bookcase or shelf to hold your books. (see: the cartonnistes website - not traditional papier mache, but really cool cardboard furniture). Or a trunk like the one Scholastic Books is selling on Amazon.com with the complete series inside. I'll post the site addresses shortly.

Donna R

There's no such thing as butchering the art of papier mache. But if you come up with something new, by all means, let us know.

People have used all kinds of paper, dryer lint, every kind of adhesive imaginable, on armatures that you would never think of using as armatures. And the surface decoration! Everything from beads to dog hair to unraveled rope to corn flakes to dog food.

Of course, not everything works. PM is an experimental person's craft, probably more so than any other art form.

Sue