Hello Im working on a mascot style helmet.

Its hopefully going to resemble a winnie the poo character.

its for a single use, fany-dress.

So far ive made the base (an beach ball covered with a few layers, with cardboard ears and a noise covered with a few areas.

At this stage ive just used wall paper paste, what i am finding is that its currently a little bit too soft, so more layers needed but the wall paper paste is just too wet i think to use to add more layers.

Any advice on making it stronger / more ridged would be great!

Once its done, its going to be covered in some old yellow fur (fake)to make it look more bear like...

Ive uploaded some photos of the work in progress here :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/ … C00093.jpg

and

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v634/ … C00092.jpg

(the parcel tape was used to hold the beach ball in place)

Last edited by iforgot (2007-08-26 21:23:30)

thanks. I removed the beach ball once it feelt hard (benifit of using a beach ball i could let some air out to test how rigid it was, and reinflate some if soft) enough to hold its shape. With the ball out it defninty dried out quicker than it was. 2 days in the airing cupboard, and its definity dry.

Today i took some garden wire, and shaped some around the hole my head will go through, only got 1 layer over it so far, as i realized that the weight of the entire thing is basically going to be sitting on that edge against my shoulders. (not that its heavy at all )

Thats definitely made the bottom edge more stable, a few more layers and i think that the wire will definitely help it to resist collapsing in once worn.

Im going to coat the whole thing i think in a layer of pva glue, (outside first, dry then inside). Before i do anymore layers, to try and get some level of hardness. To hopefully stop it collapsing as i add a few more layers.

I'll keep you all updated as it goes, but do now have a tight-ish schedule semptember 7th , it needs to be completely done. i reckon it will take me a whole day, and a day for the fabric glue to dry, got to add another day for a thin layer of varnish to dry, so i recon i have give or take a week left to get the pm stuff done, some shaping, eye holes put in and the like...

How is everyone out there, it has been very quiet here for the last few days.  I have been filling in pre school time with an owl puppet.  I am still working on the head but have nearly finished the surface decoration.  He is blue and I have managed to dye my hands blue with the tissue paper that I am using (I hate wearing gloves as I can't feel what I am doing properly).  So now look like an ancient briton from the wrist down.

Other main project has been the website build, http://www.pawtraits.co.uk
which is now finished bar the tags. I have still not worked out how to add them so that the site can be googled, it seems rather technical and needs the other half!

Oldest son is about to return to school so have been sewing name tags into anything that moves for the last couple of days.

What is every one else up to at the moment?

Hi!... love your Dragon In The Orange Garden Charlotte, right now I'm uploading a few pictures on my personal site http://staletales.multiply.com/
... still figuring out how to repair the neglected PM pieces I made about a year ago. If things work out, I might be able to take a break and mash old newspapers again... here's my bread and butter site http://griffinarts.multiply.com/

... oh iforgot not bad for a first try...  very nice mirror pieces Sue!