[Just Whisper]

You really put a lot of work into that, as well as the tutorial. Your skeleton and skulls turned out great. I just don't have the patience for a lot of papier mâché. I enjoy doing it, I just can't wait for stuff to dry.

 

[bmaskmaker]

Thanks Spooky and Whisper, and I hear you about the patience. I'm actually not all that patient either. My secrets are methyl cellulose, fans and the dehumidifier. The methyl cellulose dries really quickly (like under an hour if used by itself.) Since it's a major component of my paste and clay, those dry relatively quickly as well.

But the real secret is the dehumidifier. My studio is the basement of our house, so the dehumidifier is running constantly during spring and summer. When I mache, I place the pieces on top of, or near the dehumidifier, with a couple of fans blowing on them as well.

Typically I can dry a piece (like the 4 skulls) overnight that way. So if I have an hour or two to work on something, I can strip mache or clay it and be relatively certain it'll be dry by the next day.

If it takes longer than a day to dry something, I'm likely to get bored and move on.

 

[ladysherry]

I like your skelly tree. Gives me an idea for a prop for my graveyard.

 

[Joiseygal]

Excellent job on your paper mache skeletons! You really put a lot of work into this and it shows! The texture on the skulls turned out perfect. Great job!

 

[Jan]

Wow! Especially love the skulls--beautiful work.

 

[bmaskmaker]

Thanks Sherry, Joisey and Jan. I'm planning to add a graveyard this year and it may very well find its way into the setting somehow. I wonder if I could carve the chant as an epitaph on a large stone? Hmm ...

The skulls are my favorite part too. I see more of those in my future. Need to figure out adding a lower jaw next.

 

[Haunted Bayou]

Impressive. The first thing I thought was the skellies looked so artistic. Obviously, it is art but there is something about the skulls.

Oh and...
"Now bring us brains for our zombie horde" That made me laugh. I love zombies.

 

[bmaskmaker]

Thanks Haunted Bayou. I have to admit, for me, Halloween is like a one night community art show. I set up my display the day before ... and then, because there's this existing door-to-door candy ritual that exists also, the neighborhood comes out to see my art show.

I guess this Skelly Tree was created by Zombie artists ...

 

[hpropman]

Nicely done - I really like this prop

 

[stick]

I love this prop.

 

[bmaskmaker]

Thanks Hpropman and Stick. And Hpropman, I could probably save myself a lot of time and heartache if I just stayed with 'if it works, leave it alone' ...

I tend to need to tweak things ... it lets me discover cool things I hadn't expected, but also tends to make me lose what I knew how to do. It's why I've started taking photos of my builds ... I'm hoping to remind myself what I did, when I can't remember.

 

[fick209]

Well done! Very creative and I enjoyed reading your tutorials!

 

[bmaskmaker]

Thanks fick! I was kicking myself writing the tutorials, thinking I'm going way too in depth ... (but I wanted to write enough so that when I come back to it after a year or so ... I'll be able to do it again if I want.) ... I've had way too many experiences of trying to figure out how I did something (not that those experiments are fruitful) ...