Scratch That Itch!

Have you ever been smitten with the urge to create, but don't want to spend a lot of money on equipment and tools? Welcome to the club!

Like many creative folks, I have a lot of tools; brushes, paints, wire, sandpaper and other supplies. I had all this stuff just laying around, and then my paper shredder got full.

That made me start thinking about paper mache, so I got me a balloon and made me a fish.

This is your standard “summer camp paper mache” project, and it was fun to make. The eyes are just those glass disks you buy for planters with pupils painted on the back.

I became interested in contemporary paper mache, and wound up at Dan the Monster Man's website. He makes incredible creatures; dragons and beasties of all kinds. This is the modern face of paper mache! http://gourmetpapermache.com/

Using techniques outlined in his video and his dragon book, I made this puppet.

After completing this project, I made a pinata and several masks. All the while, I was researching this kind of craft online, finding more and better ways of doing things. (regardless, it's still messy as can be. There is no fix for that bug.)

I like to do google image searches and, on one of those searches, I came across this art car decorated in something called Skratch. It's a cellulose-based clay used in architectural features, large interior panels, and, for small potato people like me, funny little bits of art.

This is the first mask I used Scratch to detail. It's a wall mask covered in my parrot's feathers.

The base of the mask is paper mache. Skratch works really well with paper mache. This little owl is built around a paper mache core:

Skratch is just wonderful for sculpting; you can cover it in a damp cloth like clay, but once it dries, it is very sturdy. You can also sand and shape it with files, which is a lot of fun. It's easy to work with, sands and shapes easily. Then you can paint it, put a protective layer over it, and start on something else.

My “something else” was learning to airbrush a motorcycle. That done, I can return to making weird stuff with Skratch again.

If you visit their website, you can see the very large projects and show car art done in Skratch. They're very impressive, but Skratch is just great for small projects as well.

Here is Mutanto Monsanto, a mutant sugar beet I made for a protest. Again, this is a paper mache core covered with Skratch.

I also made a Carmen Monsanto hat for a rally. I like the squash the best, although the crazy grapes and banana couple are fun as well. All of these are Skratch over paper mache.

Twenty pounds of Skratch lasted me a long time. I bought it in 2013, and just ran out last June. If you keep it well sealed up in a cool place, it keeps well. The project that used up the last of the Skratch turned out to be a really interesting piece.

A few years ago, we found a cat skull in my friend's back 40, which was a killing field for coyotes. There were cat and rabbit bones all over the place. One skull was intact, and nicely sun dried, so we glued the lower jaw in place and I put it on a shelf, where it lived for a few years.

Came a day when I was unloading groceries, and noticed that the Dole fruit juice bottle cap resembled an Egyptian lotus design. I filed that away in my head, and started saving those bottle caps.

When I upgraded to Windows 8, my HP printer/scanner/copier/fax machine quit working, and the word was, no new drivers for the device were expected. I bought a nice Canon to replace it.

When I was unpacking the new printer, I found an interesting piece of styrofoam.

That was it. A new project was born. This bas relief Bastet was sculpted from Skratch after I covered the styrofoam in a shell of paper mache. I also puttied over the entire piece with a slurry of Skratch and water, to give it that “ancient tomb” texture.

I envisioned coral and lapis beads around the arch and larger tiles of same at the base. Again, all sculpted from Skratch.

I wanted to add columns on either side, to give it a sense of depth, like you could go hide behind one. And this is where the Dole bottle caps come in.

I made a small piece to mount the skull on a stick as the focal point of the whole thing. There is a little dish for the electric candle (no way should real ones be used around paper products!) and a pediment to set it on. The skull was the next task. I needed to craft a Pharoah headdress to elevate the unknown kitty to demigod status.

The last of the Skratch was used up covering the frame. It's surprising how bummed out I was when it was gone! You never know when you might need it!