Hi Sue

Thanks for your reply.
All I can say is I need a suitable hardener which would render the papier mache model rigid enough to enable me to then slice them into thin sections, without these sections becoming so loose that I couldn't then use them as a drawing aid template.

Hope that makes sense?
Best wishes
douglas

Thank you again Sue

My slices will need to be 6.5mm thick, so they will have to be fairly robust to cope with the cutting process.

I will digest the rest of your advise, and possibly ask for some further help.

Regards
douglas

Last edited by connelsey (2008-12-07 21:18:29)

Ooh, that's a tricky one.  I must admit that I don't have an answer - only thoughts.  Sawing pm is difficult because it is so fibrous.  You would need a very fine saw blade.  A knife would be useless.
You say 6.5mm slices but what size could the cross section be?  If you were to make a pulp (see the recipes on this site) it can take a long time to dry, preferably building up from the centre with no more than 1.2mm at a time.
Shredded paper is not good, in my experience.  The pulp it produces can be very lumpy.
Sorry not to be of more help.  Which part of the world are you in?
DavidO

what about a carpet cuttters knife? would that work?

Douglas,
I use shredded office paper in a pulp, i boil the shredded paper, blend it, then squeeze out the water, crumble it into small pea size pieces, let them dry then run them through a coffee grinder.  David O does this process as well, but with newspaper.  I then mix the fluff resulting from the grinding with a home made glue. My glue is 4 cups flour, 1 cup sugar and 4 quarts water, cook over medium heat stirring until thick, remove from heat, then add one quart of cold water and a few drops of tea tree oil ( for preserving) I also add a few drops of oil of wintergreen because I don't like the smell of the tea tree oil.  I sometimes press this into a mold which can result in thickness of 2cm.  Drying is aided with a fan.  This process dries very hard, I have used a small power rotary saw to slice/cut it.  I also use a dremel with assorted attachements to sand and cut.  I hope this helps you in your quest for your sculptures.

Joanne

You can try "tempering" your PM with relatively high heat to harden it.   The idea is similar to what native people used to do with the tips of their wooden arrows--cooking them a bit in fire hardens it.  Now, I'm not suggesting you throw your PM project into the wood stove--I used a woodburner (800 degrees Fahrenheit), running the tip over the surface of the sculpt.  Don't over scorch things or you'll get the opposite effect and your PM will become brittle and start flaking.  You want it lightly browned, but not black.  I regularly work on a small scale (my figures are usually between 1-3 inches tall) and regularly cut thin PM cylinders, that have a diameter only slightly larger than the thickness of a paperclip, into small sections.