Alright, it's been a few days since I did this round of work. I've been having a rough time sleeping, and I guess it just caught up to me finally. But here's what's been going on.
I had been anxiously waiting to try a paper mache technique I found while bopping around on Pinterest. Paper mache clay. There are slight variations floating around out there, but it's essentially toilet paper soaked in water, squeezed out, and mixed with glue and joint compound. I made mine on the slightly thicker side.
My goal was to cover up some of the shape imperfections that occurred in the the construction process. Fill in some of the dips, round out where it might have been a little too flat, that sort of thing. So using some sculpting tools I had from a ceramics class in college, I started spreading it onto my pieces.
I'm not going to lie, it was a slightly tedious process. In retrospect, I might have made it just a touch thinner for easier application, but the thicker consistency did make it easy to build up thickness where I needed it. Where before it was looking a little polygonal in places, it started looking much more rounded and smooth.
Now as far a surface goes, it does have some of that paper pulp in the texture, but boy did it dry hard! It added quite a sense of sturdiness, but not too much additional weight. I could have actually skipped a layer of two of the traditional paper mach and jumped straight to this, using just a slightly thicker layer.
I learn a little something more each phase of this project. I'm already excited by the idea of integrating it all into the next costume I make. But one cosplay at a time! With fifteen working days left before the convention, I really need to get cracking after only doing this coating the last few days. It'll be on to aesthetics soon, and then some sewing. Now that I've gotten a little more sleep, I'm ready for the next phase!
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