Posts – ReCreations

6 March 20246 March 2024

Rainy Day Dash

I’ve been playing with epoxy resin, experimenting with moulds, textures and effects. Much as I’ve enjoyed mixing colours in it, crystal clear resin has inspired my latest picture.

‘Rainy Day Dash’ is a 3D paper collage with wet weather effects.

Gloss paint is used on the umbrellas for a wet look.
At the front, two layers of people are adhered to clear acrylic strips and placed over mirror paper so their reflections simulate walking on a wet path.
A thin wavy textured layer of resin was created and used to line the street to look like water.
Tiny resin raindrops were applied to the inside of the frame glass within the mat.

Click the photos below to see the stages of its creation.

While each stage looked promising enough for me to continue, when the whole piece came together I was a little disappointed and think that I tried to do too much – it’s a bit ‘messy’ (in my opinion). Usually I photograph the final work without glass to avoid reflection issues, which I’ve done for this last image , but obviously the glass in this piece forms a crucial part of it, so the final feature photo at the top doesn’t really do it justice.

17 October 202317 October 2023

More fun with Hebel blocks!

As I predicted in my last post, I’ve so much enjoyed sculpting with Hebel that I’ve made a number of new projects. These are all weather-proof, perfect for a patio or garden setting.

Each bird is hand-carved without a pattern, so they all have their own unique characters. The birds in the large candle-holder below are set on dowels, so they can be moved to reposition them, or taken off for storage.

Details of my processes in making them are at my previous post.

21 August 202321 August 2023

Hebel stone carving

Hebel masonry is lightweight aerated concrete used mainly in the building industry.
It’s soft and easy to carve, making it popular for garden sculptures. I’ve been experimenting with some off-cuts, which means my ornaments are quite small.
^{_{(Click images below to enlarge)}}

The down-side of small, fine work with Hebel is that largish holes sometimes appear like air bubbles. When they appear in a critical place I’ve found it necessary to fill them. The best result I’ve had is with a wood-working glue to fill the hole, allow it to dry, then glue Hebel ‘dust’ from my carvings to smooth the surface. This is then finely sanded.

One experiment I’m quite excited about is varying the texture in places. Hebel stone is quite rough and on my small birds, I felt a textural contrast was needed to highlight some features. I’ve used a gyprock filler product, mixed with water, to smooth over areas, which in effect fills the tiny holes. When dry, this sands back smoothly and is almost the same colour as the stone. When finished, I apply a sealant over the piece.

I’ve really enjoyed the learning processes, and surprised myself by how much I enjoy carving! I’m sure I’ll be adding some new projects to this post in the future.
It’s VERY different to crafting with paper!

5 July 20235 July 2023

Layered Papercuts

I’ve recently found photos of two layered pictures I created some years ago before I opened my website gallery. This means I haven’t recorded the process, but they are just another version of layering paper to give a 3D effect. Each layer is sandwiched between borders of foam core board within the frame.

The surface embossing at the bottom of “Storm” (which is very hard to see in the photo) is pressed through a hand-cut card stencil.
(Click the top half of the photos to enlarge)

3 July 20233 July 2023

Paperbark birds

Walking along the river I found a long strip of bark from a paperbark tree (Melaleuca). The layered papery bark is very pliable and I’ve been experimenting with creating little birds from it. They are very ‘raggedy’ birds, but I liked the natural look and the colours and markings of the bark, so left it in its rough appearance. However, I have used a matt sealant to the surfaces to strengthen them. I also needed tiny thin wires between some of the layers to help hold their shape.

I’ve mounted the birds on branches, but instead of a traditional frame, I’ve cut into a frame to build the frame around the branch, so the branch extends beyond. Although they’re somewhat fragile as they’re not behind glass, I’m quite pleased with the effect.

9 October 20229 October 2022

Voyage

This new project is one of the most ambitious I’ve crafted. I was unsure of where to categorize it in my ‘gallery’ as it includes papercraft, recycled materials and woodcraft. It’s also the largest piece I’ve made – the frame is 50cm square.

The body of the ship and the seagulls are moulded with paper clay, and the waves formed from torn sheets of paper painted with watercolours. The masts are cut with a scroll saw from scraps of wood and jointed together. The sails are recycled cotton, cut from an old sheet. I tried different experiments to shape the sails as though a strong wind was blowing, before finally using a heavy starch, together with shaped paper supports behind them. The rigging ropes are made from unraveled cotton cord.

The frame is only 4cm deep, so once again I had to massage and adapt my original concept to fit, without losing its 3D perspective. (The original design was a 3-masted ship!)

While I can always identify aspects that could be better, overall I’m quite happy with the final project.

[Click near the top of the pictures to enlarge]

15 September 20223 October 2022

ReCreating Photos

This set of 4 new paper sculptures began as photographs I took recently along walks near the river and sea.
By layering and shaping prints of the photos and using cast paper mulch to build them out, I’ve created 3D settings for little creatures made from paper clay. The parts added to the photos (the paper mulch bark and stones, and paper clay creatures) are painted and sealed. As I wasn’t pleased with the painted results on the lorikeets, I finished them with tiny paper feathers. One of the most difficult aspects of these pieces is constructing the whole thing into a frame!
^{(Click near the top of the pictures below to enlarge)}

Shy Possums

Seagull lookout

Rainbow Lorikeets

Brush-tailed Possum

24 August 202224 August 2022

Oh my canvas!

Don’t store a blank canvas away, waiting for inspiration!

I’ve been imagining a mouse plague wreaking havoc in my craft cupboard!
My mischievous mice are sculpted in paper and painted with acrylic colour and sealant.
The bodies are recycled paper mulch, cast in plaster moulds which I made using plasticine and Plaster of Paris. The finer details, like ears, feet, eyes and tails are hand-shaped with paper clay.
_{(Click the top of the pictures below to enlarge)}

Although they’re the size of real house mice, they’re a bit more cartoon-like as I tried to give them little personalities.
The canvas needed a backing (for obvious reasons) so I used bright red to add colour and to highlight the rips. The scariest part of the project was ripping the first hole into a perfectly good canvas!
It’s been a fun project; it makes people smile, but no one wants it hanging on their wall!

8 August 20224 July 2023

Poppies

I made this little vase of poppies during a demonstration to show how the layered paper sculptures are constructed and how the recycled diffuser film is used.

Once again, it’s all made of shaped paper and I’ve used three layers to give depth, with the diffuser sheet cut to the shape of water in the vase. I decided to back the picture with glass, which allows light to shine through the vase and water. I’m quite pleased with this effect. Unfortunately, all the glass, film and acrylic reflections make photographing these incredibly difficult when all the layers are together!

11 July 20224 July 2023

Nesting

I’ve just completed a new paper sculpture titled “Nesting”.
I gave myself some new challenges with this one, like designing patterns folded and shaped from a single piece of paper. The nest, the birds and the foliage are all cut from single sheets, with just the tiniest bit of gluing to insert contrast colour for the birds. As shown in the photo below (click photos to enlarge), I made 14 attempts to make a nest in this way! It’s amazing how precise a pattern has to be to make the final product look messy and unfinished!

Another challenge was entwining the foliage from separate layers together into one picture. I love working with paper, but it’s so fragile and delicate so this was quite difficult.