The wire is often known as rabbit wire and can ususally be picked up from hardware stores.  Here in the UK you usually buy it in a roll.  As long as the mesh is fairly small and made of easily bendable wire you should find any of the small animal fencing is ok,  if you don't have a hardware store near try a pet shop as they sometimes sell it for owners of rabbits, guineapigs etc.

I have always found with using this wire for an armature that it is important for first wrap the whole wire structure in a pre pm layer, either masking tape or strips of cloth soaked in white glue.  It stops the rusting of the wire, which seaps through and stains and it also smooths out the hexagons prior to adding the pm, especially if you are laminating paper strips rather than using pulp.

Plasticine can become incredibly heavy if you leave it in the pm.  HOWEVER, it is fabulous for making a cast.  I made my Pirate Pete this way.  I made plasticine forms for each limb and then layered and laminated several layers of pm over them and let them dry thoroughly.  Then I cut them off the casts and dug out the plasticine.  I put the two halves of each section back together and then added a couple more layers of pm to it before finishing with fine grade pulp.  That way you get a lightweight model.  A word of warning, if you are making puppets you do have to make sure that you weight parts of the puppet correctly, particularly with marionettes as they don't hang or move correctly if they are too light.

Have a look at the CMC powder post for more details about mod podge.  From the experience of Maria I would suggest that you only use this as a sealant when your piece is completely dry.  Have a look at David Osbourne's article on the home page about pastes.  Most people use thin wallpaper paste, or a wallpaper paste and white glue mix.

Dive in and have fun, don't worry if things go wrong it is how we learn most about what we do.

Charlotte

I definitely wouldn't leave the plasticine in.  Mould the separate parts in plasticene then cover it with clingfilm.  Apply about six layers of paper at least as strong as newspaper.  Allow each part to dry.  Use a very sharp knife to cut round most of the circumference (it's useful to leave a bit that can act as a hinge and make rejoining easier).
Pull out the plasticene and any loose clingfilm.  Using a small amount of spirit glue (you see we can be supernatural here!!??), rejoin the two halves and apply at least two more layers of paper.  You can then link all the different sections with more layering.
As Charlotte said, read my article about 'What paste to use'.  You also might find some interest in the article on using Eggs.
Chicken wire is impractical in small stuff.  The 'Skating Frog' in my gallery was made on a plasticene base as I have just described.  As a result it is extremely light and can be held in an overbalancing position just with a strong wire.
We look forward to seeing your results.
David (Osborne)

Hi,
David and Sue's advice is pretty much what I have done, the only difference is that I use vaseline rather than cling film to cover the plasticine,  It is messier but I personally find it easier than film.  You're right about the number of parts for the figure, they were all made individually and then strung together later.  I used David Currell's Making and Manipulating Marionettes to help me design each piece; I followed the carved figure forms and use them as the basis.  He is very good on loose joints but not on bendable ones.  I would contact someone who does stop frame animation as they would be able to tell you what the best material to use would be, try this tutorial:

http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/handbook/5.htm

Charlotte

The brands that I have listed are Roman/Golden Harvest, Teknabond, Metylan. I know they exist, but I have had to order the dry cellulose wallpaper paste online, because no store in the local counties carries it. After you mix it, you may have to wait 4 hours to overnight for the product to completely absorb the water, and heaven forbid that any American has to WAIT more than five seconds for anything.

It seems to be much more easily available in Britain, so you may be able to find it in Canada more easily than here.

I read online that Canada has a product called Dynamic Heavy Duty Wallpaper paste #210, which is highly recommended by silkscreeners who use it in their work. It's the same stuff.

Just be aware that if the container doesn't SAY 'cellulose' on it, it isn't what you want. Many wallpaper adhesives are starch- (flour) based products, usually flour or cornstarch. Of the three types of wallpaper paste, the only other one is vinyl-based, and the word 'vinyl' is usually clearly visible.

Sue

The initial soaking is to loosen the fibres in the paper, they swell as they absorb the water, I have experimented with luke warm, cold and hot water and it hasn't made any noticeable difference to the final pulp that I can see, or speeded up the process.  What you now need to do is boil the water and paper mix to loosen and break down the paper completely.  When you have done this let the mixture cool and then you will need to get it into a porridge like consistency.  there are various ways of doing this.  I tend to put mine into an old liquidizer, in small batches, whizz it up and then dump it into an old colander to squeeze out the water.  Others use a beater/paint mixer on an a drill (I think David uses this method, my other half refuses to let me at the drill!).

The next stage is to get out the water, I start with the colander to get rid of the majority and then put it in a cotton bag (like and old pillow case) and I squeeze out as much as possible.  I then used to let it dry off in the bowl but I am planning to lay out the next batch on old baking sheets so that it will dry faster.

Once this is dry you can make up the clay, I would ask David about the glues, I have never dried just Elmers and have know idea if it would work, I would have thought that a mix of water and elmers would.  I mix paste, filler (sawdust, spackle, chalk etc) and paper pulp together and knead it until I have a workable dough that holds together, then off I go!

Experimentation is the best way to find the method that is right for you.  I personally found that I didn't get a properly adhesive pulp unless the paper was as dry as I could get it, if it was too wet it just crumbled and fell apart.

Have a look round the web, yahoo has a papiermache user group and they have some good advice.  The Canadian puppeteer Ronnie Burkitt has a recipe posted that friends reckon is fantastic (google proptology and it should come up).
Charlotte
ps, with newspaper be careful, printers put old sump oil in the ink and it stains everything, will leave a horrible scummy mark and is worth skimming off the boiling mix if you can.  You will get it on your hands as well so I recommend you use a good moisturiser before you start otherwise you will have dry and eczema-ish patches all over you.  Wash thoroughly afterwards and re-moisturise, something like Neutrogena is excellent.

Last edited by newmodeller (2008-07-20 08:50:27)

yikes!

i am concerned with how my paper pulp is drying. it is all a bunch of hard ish lumps. is that normal? will it blend out into a claylike substance once the fillers and adhesives are mixed with it?

thanks much.

Once most of the water is drained out of your pulp, you can add any adhesives and additives and get to work. There is no need to dry the pulp first, just to wet it down again to use it.

Some people dry their paper pulp to store it for future use. Dried, it is far less likely to mold, and is easier to store. DO NOT try to temporarily dry pulp that has had adhesives added to it. Just dry plain paper pulp, no additives. Think of it as pasta: make it wet, dry it, then add water and turn it into a creation.

One way to remove much of the moisture from the pulp is to use a piece of vinyl (or wire) window screening. Set the screening in a sink or larger plastic container, put your wet pulp on it, more or less formed into a longish narrow lump, then roll up the screening and squeeze as much moisture out of it as you can.  Then press between a couple of towels to absorb more of the moisture.

Your pulp will dry in lumps if it isn't flattened or formed. Paper fibers naturally clump together in water and stay that way when the water leaves, unless it is formed or manipulated. If you want lumps of pulp to be flat, use a rolling pin or a sturdy wine bottle.  Pulp balls with the moisture squeezed out, flattened into patties and pressed into flat lumps are a convenient way to dry and store them.

Keep in mind that using the maximum number of additives is not a good idea, especially when you're learning. Papier mache is paper + water + adhesive. All other additives are usually to solve a particular problem. If you don't know WHY you're adding something, don't add it.

Whole wheat flour doesn't have much in the way of adhesive properties. I don't see that it has anything to add to PM at all.

Sue

Sorry, my mistake, I always dry mine completely as I store it and then mix it up in small batches at a time, usually as I tend to work in small scale so never need huge quantities.  Although due to the way I work I did find the drier the paper the better the pulp I got, but that is probably idiosyncratic to me.

Papier mache is very good to tailor to the individual artist's particular needs, so don't worry about doing it exactly like someone else does. Your creative energy determines how you will do a project, and will probably change as you learn and with the different ideas you have.

Artists have that option, you know!

Sue