DIY - miniature cutting board - the lesson

Hi everyone!

With this upcoming heart miniature fever I thought, as Halloween is also coming, to have some fun and one of the ideas involves a cutting board (two in fact, for two planned miniatures)

Again one of the things I don't like about polymer clay is the sort of final looks, a bit waxy I think although I understand that holds good whatever one "inflicts" on it. Either way, and as I wrote before, I don't like it so in order to do my cutting board I used the usual materials: cardboard, newspaper, air drying clay, liquid cold porcelain to assemble all and give good surface, acrylic paint and matt varnish.

Didn't took images of the process but its easy to imagine:
Took a piece of cereal cardboard and cut the shape with wanted size, then added several layers of newspaper on both sides. Left it to dry. After obtaining some thickness (maybe 2 millimeters?) I've reinforced the edges with air drying clay in order to sharpen them just like on a real one. Coated with liquid cold porcelain on which, whilst drying, tried to make scratches with a needlet. First coat of brown acrylic paint. Second coat of black paint which was whipped out to obtain the usuall look of used and, well, finally coated with water based matt varnish.

Here's a blurred photo but I guess one can still see something of it, eh eh eh

As you can see its super easy to do, doesn't need special materials or clays, doesn't need to be baked and the result is very satisfying !

The lesson? Well, the lesson for me was that all of this work isn't really to state any war against polymer clay or any other trend, its just a fun construction process that is good for my soul :)

Thanks for visiting, don't be shy if you have any question and, also, don't forget to pass by my miniature doll website if you'r into history  myroyaldolls.wix.com/myroyaldolls or my etsy shop at etsy.com/shop/chezpedro.

Thanks again ;)

Handmade historical eye models, air drying clay

Hi everyone!

So I've been putting the dolls on hold for a bit and have been dedicating myself to miniatures - my latest passion !

No, no polymer clay for me. Some months ago I did tried but ...... Its not that I have anything against it but lets say I just hated it, LOL. Miniatures in polymer clay seems to me rather too easy to do, there's no construction and thus there's no fun.

So which material then? For sure paper and air drying clay just like on my doll building! ;)

I think that I have a tendency to want to recreate, in whichever material I can, different ideas of different epochs and its items (not just furniture) and as I like the so called "cabinet de curiosités" and would love to have one but don't have the space, maybe I'm attempting to build one in miniature, eh eh eh

Some months ago I caught, on Pinterest, a photo of a German 17th century eye model set on ivory which I thought trying to built up in papermache but normal scale. Time passed by, papermache prop construction got a bit faded and miniatures making struck me, so I had to try!
I had to try specially because before this project I did a miniature heart. They were so successful that whilst thinking about doing more anatomy miniatures I, again on Pinterest, stumbled on another eye model set on ivory! It was a sign ;)

Here they are

The how was basically "slices" of air drying clay putted to dry on a tealight candle and then mounted on a pin. After the glue was dry I covered all with "liquid" cold porcelain (which means more water + glue than starch). The eye is all air drying clay done in two parts - first the eye ball and after dried and painted, did the rest around and behind. For the tall one I made the middle body with a newspaper roll. 

The paint was with acrylics, matt varnish for the holders and brilliant for the eyes.

After taking the photos they look way wobbly, didn't noticed that on the actual pieces though ... The small ones are truly tiny and was difficult to combine the whole different "slices" into one direction only... 

Maybe it gives them even more an aspect of "handmade"? ;)

If you're interested on this or other eventual minis or on my dolls please visit my etsy shop @ 

www.etsy.com/shop/chezpedro

or my dolls website which was totally remodeled some months ago

www.myroyaldolls.wix.com/myroyaldolls

Thanks!

My paper dolls

Hi everyone!

As I continue to build more and more dolls and getting such wonderful reviews from friends, doll makers and other people in general, the idea of registering my project as a brand gets stronger by the day!
My plan is, after doing so, to have a selling website and share the work as much as I can.
There are still some insecurities, specially regarding pricing them or if after bought how would I send them? Would be nice a box with myroyaldolls logo but I guess that would cost lots of even more money, no? What do you think or what is your experience?

Needing 150 euros for the registering, anyone? my paypal address is myroyaldolls@gmail.com
Can paint your portrait as exchange, thank you ;) ;) ;)

With Marie Antoinette's blessings ;)

Paper astronaut

Hi everyone!

Today I'm really happy because finally have a finished project that I can show and talk about, lol!

Some days ago, scrolling through my Pinterest, I bumped into a curious artifact that shows what seems to be someone driving a flying machine.
Kind of a "no big deal" indeed but its an object from a civilization that lived about 3.000 years ago, the Olmecs!

Mostly known from the colossal heads they left us (that one day I hope to do one too), I must confess that when I started this project I thought it was a Mayan or Aztecan artifact.

Although rather simple to do, took me more time than expected because in the meantime I flew (such an appropriate term!) in between other projects.

So, its recipe?

First I roughly drew the figure on a piece of cardboard,  

then covered with paper clay (from a simple batch of chewed paper+water+glue)

 

and left it to dry ... :)

As its hot it took only some hours to dry. Afterwards and to distract my eyes from all the texture left by the paper clay, I covered all with sheet of toilet paper and, with air drying modeling paste, remade some details specially the head. Also used a sharp tool to "scratch" the thing here and there ;)

If you ever watched my YouTube channel you probably heard  me talking about what google translator translates as "bitumen" although its not what google images shows me... Its a wonderful super fast drying paste that I'm absolutely enchanted about and have been using lots. 

On this piece, even before doing the scratchings, I used the bitumen t cover some gaps, redefining designs, etc. 

Everything dried and ready, time to paint fun!

For the paint fun I was hoping to achieve some rusty kind of look so I splashed all with burnt sienna with several touches of blue, red and orange. 

Not satisfied, ended up by applying metallic gold highlight and a coat of water based varnish.

And voilá, it was basically it! ;)

Please bare in mind that I wasn't aiming to do a proper copy. 

Actually my paper mache historical props are more of an expressionist impression of an historical item that in the end, I hope, looks kind of fun and somewhat kitsch but with a overall "please remember history" message :)

 

Thanks for visiting, share it and DO this at home, have fun! ;)

Paper fig slice making! Spring fun?

Hi everyone!

Its during spring with the hot weather that one feels more inclined to eat fruits, isn't it so? Yeap, but not me so... lets just pretend, ah ah ah

This post will give you some insight upon how to or how I did some slices of fig!

The materials I used were:

- toilet paper cardboard roll (the one that is left after one finishes all the paper
- newspaper
- toilet paper
- white glue
- acrylic paints - red, pink, white, yellow, green and black

So, first of all I cut some small "slices" of the cardboard roll ..,

... placed each cardboard slices on a piece of paper, imagined their shape, drew it on the paper with a slight thick border and with a circle in the middle because figs are hollow, right? (never mind the guy's face, was just on the paper :p

 So I cut off the shape, the middle and also did some cuts on the border. Placed the cardboard slice over and from the outside toward inside I glued each of those... dont know how to call them though... squares? flaps?

Ending with this (seen from the bottom)

 Then with the toilet paper I cut little squares or rectangles and made tiny rolls by rubbing them with my fingers (if your hands are too dry you can also wet them a bit)
Don't worry if the paper won't maintain the shape, that's probably a plus! ;)
 After applying glue on the "border" I've started gluing the little toilet paper rolls following the movement of the shape.

And after applying at least two layers of these little rolls I ended up with this

As the edges looked a bit "sauvage" I've glued some plain pieces of toilet paper between the cardboard edge until the rolls thus also creating a smother edge just like on a real fig (yeah, that white bit before the peel) For the peel also glued some plain toilet paper.

2nd fun bit - the painting!

So with a deep red I painted the middle with some magenta on the edges of the rolls, between that and the "peel" I applied a coat of white, then a bit of yellow (just a tiny bit) and on the edge edge a slight touch of green that I tried to merge with the yellowish white.
To "pretend" the seeds I could do two things. One was to create little balls either with wet paper or air drying clay and glue them on top and then paint them OR just paint little dots which was what I decided to do :)
For the peel  first I gave a sort of transparent coat of black and then, over it, a green one that merged with the black.

And that my friends was it!

Please bare in mind that I made these through a mental recollection, wasn't really trying to copy or to pretend that these fig slices would fool anyone :)

Thanks for visiting and, please, be creative!

Small step for a men, huge leap for mankind?

Hi everyone!

Its been a while since I haven't been working on a big papermache project and so I haven't been posting here lately.
Been doing some paintings, but mostly dolls ...

So I've decided to change this blog into a somewhat story showcase of all that I may be doing artwise and thus it will generate into more content.

Thank you :)

Mid XIX century hat

Hi everyone!

Sooner than I expected, started a new historical hat.

 This time and inspired by the Palácio da Pena's construction period and its founder - King Ferdinand Saxe Coburg und Gotha - planned my next hat to be around 1860s which means a simple cylinder shape and a small straight brim.

With already some experience from the past two hats I constructed, this one is made from cereal box cardboard because of its lightness.

For the "body" I used this very simple "formula"

 

some tries for the head size measure

For the brim I used normal cardboard because wanted some stability once it's, afterall, the base of the hat. Also, to fit within the head, thought that something thicker would be better.

As I didnt took any photo of the final "ensemble" can only say that once again geometry wise all looked rather disastrous so I took some paper clay paste, tried to redefine the circular shape on the top and, basically, now I'm waiting for it to dry and to cover all with several toilet paper sheets  in order to equalize all. ;)

Thats all for tonight folks, thanks for visiting and following. 

Hope that 2017 will be a tremendous creative year for us all, yey!! :D