Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Baby Unicorn

Every now and then I like to sharpen my sculpting skills. I love to make animals and miniatures. I once sculpted a set of carousel animals using this method of paper clay over cardboard.  I also have recently learned how to make my own paper clay and it saves me a ton of money from buying the kind I used when I made dolls and carousel animals years ago - and it's just as strong, if not stronger.




I got the paper clay recipe from Jonni Good at Ultimate Paper Mache. It's been going around the internet for a few years with small changes to her original recipe but stick with hers because it is the best and the ORIGINAL one.

I got her instructions for making a baby unicorn and rabbit from patterns I purchased from her web site. I decided to make the unicorn first but I changed the instructions on mine because I've sculpted with all these materials before and pretty much know how I wanted to make mine.

I decided to use layers of corrugated cardboard with paper clay and not use aluminum foil and epoxy clay. I used what I had. I use foil under polymer clay but I don't like it under paper clay, I would rather build my sculpts up with cardboard for the thicknesses I need.






It's just a personal preference and you can do it any way you like. I followed the rest of her instructions pretty much though. I used florist's wire to reinforce the legs and neck. And I used a lot of hot glue to strengthen up these areas and hold the wire on to the cardboard. I added masking tape in places to help hold the next layer of paper clay on.





I built the thickest parts of the horse up over time and allowed it to dry thoroughly between layers. So far I have the start of a good looking little unicorn. He comes in around 12" tall to the tips of his ears. It's a start.



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