Paper Mache Elephant
A work in progress
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12 June 2011 This is Ellie, our paper mache elephant sculpture. Well, it's the beginning of her anyway. She is our latest work in progress. So far, we've got her to the stage of adding layers for strength. Ellie stands a little under a metre tall so, as you can imagine, it takes a while to cover her in a layer of paper. This is actually a good thing because it means that by the time you finish one layer, the area where you started is almost dry enough to start the next one. |
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How we got started
When we were first asked if we could do this project, having never even thought about a paper mache elephant before, I honestly had no idea how we were going to start. Pretty much par for the course then.
Anyway, on the day we actually sat down to begin it all seemed to fall into place.
Before we even touched our art materials we studied loads of elephant photographs. Interestingly, both Annemarie and I have seen elephants in the wild numerous times, but neither of us really knew what they looked like until we got going with Ellie.
It's amazing what you don't notice about the things you see until you really study them.
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Taking the first steps Having found several photographs to use as models, we first drew the shape of Ellie onto a large piece of cardboard. We worked on her legs and body as two separate sections initially. We did this so that we could build enough strength in her legs before they needed to support the weight of her body. Once we were happy with the outline, we cut it out and began to roughly bulk out her shape. |
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Adding the bulk To begin shaping her muscles we used plastic supermarket packets stuffed with newspaper. We used masking tape to hold the bags in place and to add additional shaping. Note that we haven't added any shaping to the sections of leg yet. This is because they will eventually be cut off. |
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As we were working separately on the legs, those parts were just added as a guideline for when we wanted to fit the real thing.
Fitting the legs - Updated 21 June 2011
We laid them next to the body just to get a rough idea of the final placement and to see that they were more or less the correct shape.
The next stage involved covering them in several layers of strip paper mache to be sure that they would support the weight of her body.
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The actual fitting of the legs was accompanied by a few choice words that won't be repeated here. Getting all four of them in the right place at the right time was quite a mission, even for two people. Although we don't have a photo of it, the body is supported by two coat hangers which were bent like mini hammocks and attached between the two front and the two back legs. |
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Each leg also has a metal coat hanger running through the middle of it for strength. The hangers that support the body weight are twisted onto the ends of the ones in her legs.
Okay, I realise you have to
have a really good imagination to figure out what I actually mean
there, so I apologise for not taking photos of that part. But, if you
could have seen us trying to get everything in place you would
understand why we didn't. It was like a game of Twister on steroids.
Paper mache elephant legs and human limbs all over the place.
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Here she is, on her feet at last. At this point she is still only very roughly elephant shaped. The next step is to apply enough paper mache to give her some decent strength. We alternated between layers of newspaper and layers of strips from the yellow pages. This way we could see where we had been. Once she is strong enough, and we are sure her legs can take the weight of her body we will start adding some shape to her. |
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This is our paper mache elephant so far. We're currently adding layers and making sure she is strong enough for the next step. As soon as she is ready we will update this page with our progress. Paper Mache Elephant Update - 10 July 2011 Well, as you can see from the date of this update, it's a long, slow process working on a project this size. She is coming along nicely though. Since the last update she has been strengthened up some more, she has her wrinkled skin and her ears. |
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As part of her strengthening we added a layer of fabric mache. All she needs now is her feet building up to form the toes, her eyelashes, her mouth and her ear veins, and then she will be ready to paint. This is a really exciting stage of the project, but we won't be able to work on her for a while because we have a lot of other work on the go. |
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We will update again as soon as we've done some more to her. In the meantime, here she is with her ears and her wrinkles.
That strange yellow thing she's holding in her trunk is a paper flower that Annemarie made, and it's not a permanent fixture.
01 September 2011
Well our paper mache elephant is at the final painting stage now and is almost ready to go to his new home in Zambia. I know I've referred to him as a she throughout the work in progress, but apparently 'she' is a he:)
He now has his own page on the site but here are a few more photos of him in his final stages.
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Note:
The paper mache elephant will be the last of our works in progress to appear in this section of the site.
We have started a blog where you will find all the new projects we're working on and all of the latest news from CPM HQ.
Return to Work in Progress from Paper Mache Elephant
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