Tuesday [Things I Make for Me]

It happened. I'm surprised that I evaded it this long. Time and time again, I have been regaled with others' horror stories. And my own experience lived up to the grave descriptions.

Chaos > Stagnation

If you walk into my studio, you might wonder why I have SO many projects going at the same time. 

Almost everywhere you look in here, there is a work in progress. Some just begun and some just a few mere steps from completion.

Paper Beef

A recent order placed by a customer revealed an opportunity to set the record straight about the art of papier mache (aka paper mache). A parent placed an order for the paper mache body of a project with the plan to apply the finishing touches with her child. She sent me a link to detailed instructions to create the piece

Without revealing info about the link or its creator, I will say that it was the most convoluted set of plans, which included a number of messy, unnecessary steps... I shook my head at the idea that it was a project given to a child to complete at home. As someone who has worked in this medium for more years than I want to admit anymore, I wonder why people think it's such an enigma or tricky concept. When I see projects like this, I know. Please! Paper mache is NOT complicated! Don't make it. As much as I'm happy to create a custom request, I feel bad for the parents who have these things thrust onto them, without the interest or understanding of how simple they should be.

Bottom line, in my opinion, it was a project meant to be created in a classroom, guided by a teacher who is familiar with the technique (or at least okay with a mess). Not sent home for some harried parent to deal with. And if it is given as a take home project, or for any other reason tackled by a newbie, I'd like to set the record straight, to hopefully help parents, or anybody else faced with a project, if they're unfamiliar with paper mache. I'm sure there are lots of other great recipes to be found all over the internet. I've noticed, though, when I did a search that most were exceedingly involved, some with weird, complicated ingredients and steps. My personal preference is to create pieces using the simplest recipe, so I can reserve the finesse for the finishing (sanding, painting, embellishing).

There are two main types of paper mache, used over centuries by different cultures, to make many different (often functional) things. The pulp method is shredded paper, soaked in water, then mixed with a binder to create a clay-like situation that can be sculpted (more on this one later). The strip method involves paper torn into strips, dipped into a solution, layered onto a form, then allowed to dry. The strip method is the one I want to clarify (in case anyone is interested in my approach, after years of trial and error). Bottom line KEEP IT SIMPLE. When people start talking about boiling glue or boiling paper, I roll my eyes. That stuff is a waste of time to me, and doesn't make a difference in the finished piece. 

Here it is: Get newspaper (or whatever type of paper you prefer to use). Tear it into strips. Get plain white

glue. Add water to it until it reaches the consistency of milk. Dip the strips, (dripping excess glue off before applying) and apply 3-7 layers of strips to your form. Let your form dry. Add more, if necessary to achieve a hard, strong shape. Done. Well, at least the wet part, anyway. Now, there are other details, of course, so here's a quick breakdown:

• I prefer white glue over flour and water or wallpaper paste because a) flour and water pieces can mold! b) my skin does not like wallpaper paste- it makes me break out in hives.
• Salvage common household items to make forms. Use masking tape to tape together different shapes such as balloons, empty bottles, paper towel tubes, boxes, etc. to create a basic shape you can paper mache.
• If you'll need to remove items used to mold shapes (balloons, bowls, etc.), coat them with petroleum jelly, cooking spray, or talcum powder to make them easy to pry out of the dried paper form
• If you need to cover an item completely, when it has dried, carefully use a craft knife to cut your paper form. Pry the item out, then tape and mache the empty paper form back together.
• For heaven's sake, if you need to create a face/mask, please don't paper mache your face or a child's face (yes, I've seen this done). Do you wanna rock a paper facial until it's totally dry? No, I didn't think so. Get a styrofoam wig head thing, slap some Vaseline on it, and paper mache that.
• If you need a form that can't be found around the house, or want to make a unique shape, consider using non-hardening plasticine clay. It's super cheap, and you can get it at any craft store. There's the gray, artist grade type, or the colorful kind you can get in the kids section. Both do the job equally well. You can sculpt your piece, then dust it with talcum powder or cover with petroleum jelly/cooking spray, and paper mache it. Remove it from the clay when it has dried. This is a popular approach for mask making. You can reuse the clay over and over for different projects.
• Use sandpaper to smooth your piece.
• Allowing pieces to dry fully before attempting to smooth or paint them will prevent some warping, but be prepared, even the most carefully constructed pieces can warp occasionally. 

I think that's all of the basics. I may think of more to add later. If I've missed anything, or anyone has any questions, feel free to post them in the comments. I have another tip that I'll post later with pics on One Tip Tuesday.

Also, I mentioned pulp earlier. Find my recipe for pulp HERE.

Gnat Anymore

I don't have the time to Google it and find out for sure, but I'm pretty sure that there are absolutely no benefits to having gnats (i.e. fruitflies) on this planet. If I could have chosen the creatures that God left off his to-do list, they would make the top 3 for me. Okay that was mean. But gnats seriously annoy me. In the summertime, here in the Southern U.S., and I'm sure, many other places, they somehow appear, explode into hundreds more each day, and think that you've purchased fresh produce purely to welcome them into your home. 

I, personally, got fed up with them zooming around past my ears and face, playing tag in front of my computer screen, and landing on my food. So the past few summers I have experimented with a few different concoctions found by Googling "kill the bastards"- kidding- I don't need the government knocking on my door. I just searched "getting rid of gnats", and found a bunch of variations of a basic mixture. I guess the mixture you choose could be determined by whether you have bougie gnats, country gnats, ghetto gnats, or whatever- no one mixture seemed to work for everybody who discussed their infestation online. After a bunch of trial and error, I worked out a mixture that's finally doing the trick for me. The mixtures were all simple, without hard and fast measured amounts, and the most common denominator in all of them was apple cider vinegar. Some people recommended just putting some wine out, in which the gnats start a party, get baked, and drown, but why pay good money for wine and serve it to gnats? The most typical mixture I found included the vinegar, mixed with a little dishwashing liquid (which, according to some of the posters, made the situation too slippery for the gnats to escape). The mixture is placed in a little bowl or cup out in the open. I've tried it, and it worked okay, but I basically had tiny swimming pools with one or two dead gnats in the bottom, and 4 or 5 still flying around, oblivious to the end I was trying to bring to them. 

So recently, my mom gave me the idea to try adding a tiny piece of fruit, since that was their thing. That turned on a light bulb, and being tired of the messy, smelly little bowls, I decided to rig something else. I grabbed a couple of empty brown apothecary bottles from my studio. Carefully poured apple cider vinegar in, filling about half way. Then I added the dishwashing liquid, till the contents reached about three quarters full (don't fill all the way and make it easier for them to escape!). Then, I added a tiny chunk of watermelon to one, and banana to the other. Lastly, I smeared a little banana around the insides of the bottle mouths. My reasoning:

a) they were attracted to the smell of apple cider vinegar, but maybe the smell of the fruit they can't seem to resist will seal the deal b) dark amber bottles might be confusing to them and meant I didn't have to see dead bugs c) these little bottles were neater, better looking and not smelly like little bowls of vinegar. 

So I put my little bottles out, gave it a day or two, in which the gnat population seemed to dwindle, and low and behold, with a hard look at the bottles held up to the light, there was my proof. They worked! So I thought I'd share it here, where it might help someone else. Hey, I may not be able to save the world, but I got some ideas, lol. 

SN: the raffia seen in the pictures, tied around the bottle was just for aesthetics, to make them look less like bottles of crack rock or something. Say no to drugs. Except Claritin, if you have allergies like me. 

Sweet Summer

With a little over a month left of this summer season, I'm trying to maximize every moment and fit in assorted memorable fun, big and small. Something I feel no summer should be without, especially in the Southern U.S., is some good old fashioned funnel cake. Most of us, at one time or another have had the priviledge of partaking in this yummy treat, whether at carnivals or ice cream shops, but almost always during the hot summer months, where it is enjoyed piping hot with either confectioner's sugar or a host of other toppings piled on high.

This summer, for the first time, it occured to me to try making funnel cake from scratch. I found a super easy recipe online that I wanted to share.

• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• vegetable oil

Mix ingredients with a whisk. Heat vegetable oil in a pan (at least 1/2 in deep for frying). Drizzle batter into hot oil. Create shapes if you like. Flip once when the edges brown. Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel. Add powdered sugar or topping of choice if desired.

 

Here's what mine looked like. ↑

And voila! You've made a classic treat right at home. Hope you try it out :o)