Head on a Platter

Have you seen this paper pulp? It's simply paper that has been finely ground.

Add water and it resembles oatmeal--you need to wear a respirator with this stuff since the dust is so fine.

Here we've shaped the pulp onto a twisted paper/masking tape form. We have a gas oven that is always warm and so we put it in and "baked" it overnight.

Once dry, my second grader painted it and we added wire whiskers. I had an old hotel room key that we slid into a cut section of the paper form--you can see it hanging out here. I cut a slit into the pumpkin and just slid in the head. Voila! (We added feet and a tail, but they aren't as exciting.)

 Now it's the head of Mrs. Frisby from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

This pulp is a great substitute for traditional paper mache. You can smooth the oatmealness of it with a putty knife after it's formed and before it's dried. It can also be sanded. In the past I've used a cut section of a toilet paper roll as a form and made puppet heads out of this pulp. The options are endless!



I'm glad you managed to escape the news for a bit to land on my page. This has been a tough day or two, and I'm afraid it's only the beginning for our friends and family in the NE. Time to hang the prayer flags.