See, I've posted much sooner this time! This will go much faster than the dragon pair, I promise. Since these are big projects I bought some quarter inch aluminum bars for the insides of the legs. Paper mache alone, even if it's thick, isn't strong enough for legs like this. I got these bars at Home Depot. They are really great for this purpose. I put some bends in the bars using my anvil.
Then I did my usual sculpting with various paper mache balls and pieces of balls, and of course, lots of masking tape. Note the bar sticking out at the thigh level. The leg will pivot on that bar.
Below is the donkey hanging from the ceiling for the first time. It hangs from a three-eighths inch threaded bar that extends through the body to the chest. I've sculpted the front legs. And I've finished the cloth mache on the donkey jaws. Note the horse teeth. Thank you Mona!
As you probably noticed, the jaws are made from the shells of a paper mache ball.
The elephant took a lot more reinforcement as you might imagine. Again, paper mache alone is not strong enough for hanging such a large piece. The aluminum was critical. Note the aluminum strap on the side. It will end up between the paper mache layers and the cloth mache. This strap extends all around and under the elephant and is connected at the top to another threaded bar extending through the body. All of this is necessary because of the weight of the project.
That's all for now. More very soon.
Dan
