Tuesday 28 February 2012

Birth of a Bunny

On New Year's Day this year, I became a great aunt for the third time. The first two are girls... this one a boy. One of my older nieces (not a great niece... just a regular niece... although she's a great young woman!) coined a term for great aunt that shortened things up a bit. She did the same thing with great uncle too. She's silly that way!

So I am three times a "Grauntie". Great + aunt = grauntie. (In my family aunt rhymes with ant, not taunt. Just so you know.)

So as a gift for the birth of this wee little man, I took it upon myself to make something for him. I was finding time dragging a bit (mild understatement) after the demise of my relationship with the MoS, so I decided to try my hand at paper mache.

And not just any old paper mache, but the type that uses paper mache clay as found here. I've never actually made anything out of any kind of paper mache before, so this was a venture into uncharted territory.

I've put together a little slide show of the procedure, complete with Lila checking it out midway through construction. I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out! It's about 14" tall and solid as a rock. I sprayed a few coats of water-based varathane on it when it was all painted up for protection.

So? What do you think?



PS - LX? And Sausage Fingers? I can't comment on your blogs because of the embedded comments thing. I don't know why. It doesn't matter if I use the old or the new blogger interface. I've tried both. *sigh* Just so you know...

9 comments:

  1. Your bunny is gorgeous. Though with those ears, this side of the water, we'd call it a hare.

    I'd say your time is very well spent indeed.

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  2. Nice one....does the rabbit have sweeties inside.

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  3. Excellent! With those ears, he looks like a West Texas Jackrabbit!

    PS: ??? I switched to embedded comments because that is the only option with follow-up e-mail. I will investigate.

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  4. Roses: Yes, technically it is a hare. In fact, it is a black-tailed jack rabbit. We have gazillions of jack rabbits here, along with their little cousins, the cottontails.

    SF: No sweeties. He's chock full of crumpled newspaper and masking tape!

    LX: Those ears were tricky! I had to put an elastic band around them while the paper mache clay was drying around the base because they just wanted to tip over.

    And thanks for looking into the comments thing. Blogger really knows how to screw things up, doesn't it?

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  5. HEY!!!!!! I'm really, really impressed. You used the technique perfectly and actually gave the face a personality. The shaping is also really good and so is the painting. I would recommend sealing it, satin finish is nice but I'm a sucka for the high gloss.

    This is your first try at paper mache? DAMN!

    Super cool. can't wait to see what you do next.

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  6. Boxer: Thanks!! I did spray it with several coats of satin varathane, so it's protected. I personally do not like the glossy look. Haven't decided what project #2 will be yet. Or when I will get around to it. ;-)

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  7. Attention LX: Whatever you did to your comments thing worked... once. I was able to comment, and then noticed it went back to the drop-down box for choosing your account being nonfunctional. Argh!!!

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  8. How cool is that?!

    That is one lucky little tyke to have you in his life. Can't wait to see what the next project brings.

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  9. I really like your bunny!

    Re blogging/coments/browsers: Did you try firefox? As I understood Chrome is not working as it should on blogger blogs - what is very strange, because it's all google: Blogger, Youtube, Chrome, comes all out of one company, or better: Today it all belongs to one. I think they re-model their software. If you do not like IE (9 is finally a good one), there's always Firefox: Smaller, fast, reliable - and you can make all the ads shutup with an ad-on.
    If you are adventurous, there is Iron, that is Chrome just without some google-specific trallala. And if you are ready to explore the unchartered territory, there is Midori - don't kick me LX ...

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So you have something to say about all this, do you?
Well, let's hear it, then!