Papier Mache Bear Heads

Keeping with our Bear and papier mache theme this week I put together this project.


Each head is about the size of an orange.  I mounted mine, a good way to combine this project with a writing assignment.

I think these would also be amazing as a Christmas tree ornament.  Put a eye hole screw in place by poking a hole in the top.  Polar bears with a red ribbon...awesome!

Let's get started.







MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- newspaper
- masking tape
- white glue and water mix (1 to 1), paper towel strips for mache
- cardboard egg carton
- recycled cereal or cracker box
- acrylic paint
- small brushes for details
- bear reference photos
- substrate if mounting, I used a piece of plywood but you could use hardboard (masonite), canvas, or cardboard
- glue

PROCEDURE:

Take a half piece of newspaper and squish into a ball, about the size of your palm, and tape.




If you want to mount these on a substrate, choose one side and pound it a few times on your work surface to flatten.  When maching you will not need to cover this area.

Cut a section from your egg carton.  You don't need to trim as those jagged edges help you tape it to the newspaper ball.

Tape in place with masking tape.

The egg carton forms the muzzle of the bear.

Out of a cereal or cracker box cut 2 ears.  See how mine have tabs at the bottom, this makes it easier to tape.

Mix up your glue and water (1 to 1). Have your paper strips ready to go.  I always make extra and keep them in a plastic bag for future projects.

Start applying your strips, crisscross them so they hold each other in place.  You only need 1 coat.  Cover the ears and you can add a ball of strips to build up the nose.
Try to keep the shape of the ears, no excessive wrapping.  If you are mounting the heads you don't need to cover the back.

Leave the heads to dry.  About 1-2 days and give them a turn to dry all the sides.

I like to put mine on wax paper so they don't stick.

When dry give your heads a coat of paint.

Using small brushes paint the details.  Reference photos of bears are a great help.

You can paint your background if you are mounting them.  I spent a bit of time trying to figure this out.  I did not want to make it too busy and distracting.  The focus is the bears.

I opted for colours that would be found in each Bear's environment.

Glue the heads in place. I used the glue gun but you can also use tacky glue.

I wanted to add some text to the piece.  I printed out my titles and painted them with some watery acrylic.

I had thought I would put the names of the bears but it proved to be too busy.

Add a coat of sealer if you wish and a hanger at the back.

That's it.  My grizzly turned out too be way more friendly than I intended. :)


Gail

Papier Mache Bear Den

I developed this project last spring for a group of 1st Graders.



They were quite successful.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- a round balloon
- white glue, water, paper towel strips for mache
- acrylic or liquid tempera in white, black, green
- recycled cereal or cracker box, some corrugated cardboard
- kraft paper or painted paper scraps (brown)
- Tacky glue
- moss
- shredded paper
-fun fur or felt, optional
- googly eyes
- black paper or foam for nose

PROCEDURE:

Blow up your balloon, a little smaller than your hand.

Gather your papier mache supplies.  I like to work on top of wax paper.

I use a 1 to 1 glue and water mix.

Cover your balloon with strips. You need about 2 layers.  I use brightly coloured balloons and when you can't see the colour anymore you know you're good.

Criss cross the strips, every once and a while put a dry strip on to soak up the excess glue.

It should look like this when you are done.  Notice I left the end of the balloon poking out, this makes it easier when it comes time for cutting.


You want to let these balloons dry out, 1-2 days.

The balloons like to roll so I make a ring out of foil to keep them stable.

Half way thru the drying time you want to turn them.

When the paper mache has dried pick one side, usually the weaker one, and gently smoosh the side in.

To cut the den opening start at the balloon end and cut out a circle.  Start small you can always cut it larger.

Time to paint.  Mix your white and black paint together to make grey. Paint the entire den and then with a sponge add plain white and black.  We are trying to make it look like rock.

We did not paint the inside.  If you want to, wait until the outside is dry otherwise your papier mache gets too soggy and may collapse.

Take your corrugated cardboard and cut an oval for your base.  You want it larger than the size of your bear den.

Paint with green paint.  If you use 2 shades of green you can add a lot of depth and texture to your grass making it look more realistic.

Cut a bear body out of your recycled cereal box.




You want it too be just a little smaller than the opening of your bear den.

Now you could paint it directly or if you have some scraps of brown painted paper glue this on.

We added some fuzziness to our bears.  You can use fun fur, fleece, or felt.

The head is a rounded triangle with ears.  At school we used kraft paper, here I used some speckled paper I had leftover from my Bear Collage project.
Colour the inner ear with pencil crayon.

Glue your pieces together.  Add 2 google eyes and a nose punched from black paper or foam.

When your den is dry, glue onto the base.

Glue some moss onto the base around the sides of the den.

I get my moss from a garden centre.

We need to add a little stuffing to our dens.  You can purchase it or do what I do.  I run cardstock and newspaper thru the shredder.  Crumple the strips a bit with your hands and it works great.

Stuff the den.

Time to add the bear.  Put some glue on the feet, fold them backwards and stick on the base in front of the den. You will need to hold them in place until they set-up.

That's it.

If you are studying Bears this is a great tie in.


Gail

Weavy Loops Winners

Happy Saturday everyone.  The winners of the Weavy Loops kits by random draw are:

Bobbie N Dana Whiddon and
Nancy Dap

If you could send me your mailing addresses I will get those sent out to you right away.

thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

Thanks everyone for entering and I hope you will include weaving in your art adventures.

Gail

Woven Owls #2

This is the second weaving project for this week.  Staying with the owl theme, this is a more traditional weaving technique.

It's a good project for Grade 3 and up.



Don't forget to enter the Weavy Loops giveaway.  Check out the previous post for details











MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- rectangle of recycled heavy duty cardboard
- yarn needle or toothpick
- yarn in assorted colors
- string, optional
- sturdy plastic fork
- buttons for eyes
- felt, fun fur for eyes and ear tufts
- embroidery floss for beak and feet
- twig
- feathers for wings, optional
- glue

PROCEDURE:

You can make a loom from an old picture frame or piece of plywood and some nails.  This has been on my to-do list for quite a while. I need at least 50.


Instead.....

I tend to use cardboard as it's free and if I lose one it's no big deal.

You need heavy weight cardboard.  Cut slits at both ends.  I tend to space them about 1 finger width apart.

For the owl you need about 15 strings.  To string your loom wind some string thru that first slit and the end of the cardboard, knot it onto itself.  With the long end of the string or yarn go down to the first slit at the bottom, go around the notch and then back up to the next slit at the top.  Continue until you have 15 strings.  Tie the loom off the same way you started.
Over time your strings may relax.  Don't worry your weaving will still work out but to stop them from slipping off the loom I tape the top and the bottom into place.

Time to start weaving.  Take a length of yarn and knot it onto the first string on the loom.  It doesn't matter which side you start on.

Thread a yarn needle or tape your yarn to a toothpick.  With the needle make sure you tie a knot to keep it from unthreading.

I teach the kids that same chant, "over, under, over, under" and we begin.

Thread the yarn thru the strings, over and then under until you get to the end of the row.  Pull all the excess thru.
Time to go back.  Look to see if your last pass was over or under at the end and then continue the pattern.  So if I was over the last string like in this photo, when I come back I go under that first string.  Kids often forget to look at this last string, jumping straight to the next one and that's where we can get into trouble.

As you weave you want it your rows to be tight together.  This is where the plastic fork comes in.  Use the prongs to push your rows close together.


When switching colours I like to do it at the end of a row. Knot the yarn off on that last string.  I leave a bit of a tail....don't cut it short, we will pull them thru our weaving at the back.  This will make our weaving neater.

Knot the new yarn on and keep weaving.

You want a rectangle of about 8-10 inches long for a good sized owl.

When the weaving is done it's time to take it off the cardboard loom.  I do one end at a time.
Remove the tape.  Ease the loops of strings off the notches.
It will look like this.
Take 2 of the loops and knot them together.  The string at the end will just be a single strand not a loop.  Just knot it to the loop next to it.

Make sure the knots are tight and then trim the excess.

Turn the weaving over to the back.  Slip the ends of your yarn bits thru a few of the weaving stitches and then trim the excess.

To make a hanger, fold over the top edge, add a hanging string and then glue that top edge down.

I cut 2 triangles out of fun fur for my ear tufts and glued them into place.  This is optional as not all owls have this feature.

I cut 2 circles out of felt for my eyes.  I found 2 buttons to use as the pupils.  Hand sew these into place.  Great button sewing practice for the kids.

With this owl it was woven close to the top so I used the loops to hold my hanging yarn.


Add a beak using embroidery floss. You want a triangle shape so try to bring the stitches in to a point.

You need a straight twig for the bottom, about 12 - 14 inches long.

Secure to the owl by stitching feet with embroidery floss that go around the twig.

Do both feet.

You can glue on 2 feathers for the wings if you wish.

That's it.

You could do them in Fall colours or make a Halloween owl.

I'll be back Saturday with the Weavy Loops draw.
See you then.

Gail