{"id":864,"date":"2015-10-20T12:32:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T12:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/?p=864"},"modified":"2016-02-13T15:50:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-13T15:50:29","slug":"making-a-giant-paper-mache-bat-decoration-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/making-a-giant-paper-mache-bat-decoration-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a giant paper mach\u00e9 bat decoration &mdash; part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-26.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-26.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- front view\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-bat-part-1\/\">See part one of this paper mach\u00e9 bat project here.<\/a> Now, where were we? <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-bat-part-1\/\">When we left off<\/a>, I&#8217;d just added the wing membranes, and the head was nearly finished but not yet attached to the body.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-16.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-16.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- teeth and eyes\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I cut the teeth out of an aluminum cookie sheet, and I put a layer of paper mach\u00e9 on them; this was very difficult and annoying because the shape was so small and intricate. For the eyes, I decided to stick with the buttons I&#8217;d been messing around with earlier, and cover them with paper mach\u00e9 so I can more easily paint them. <\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-17.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-17.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- head close up\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The head is finally finished! However, a little while later I decided I wasn&#8217;t happy with how flat the fangs looked, so I added a thin strip of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=craft+foam&#038;espv=2&#038;biw=1920&#038;bih=965&#038;source=lnms&#038;tbm=isch&#038;sa=X&#038;ved=0ahUKEwjh09CLi_XKAhXMHD4KHWKaAS0Q_AUIBygC\" target=\"_blank\">craft foam<\/a> and paper mach\u00e9&#8217;d over it; you&#8217;ll see that in later pics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-18.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-18.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- head side view \" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Time to attach the head to the body! I had no idea how well this was going to work out, but it went great. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-19.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-19.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- making the neck\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll see there&#8217;s really no neck at all; I had to build up this neck area from scratch. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-21.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-21.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- using masking tape to create the neck\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n <div class=\"ad-300x250 ad-float-right\">\r\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- MMS 300x250 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5009313124668288\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3616150394\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>I taped down the head to keep it from moving, and I created a neck by just gently laying strips of masking tape down and building up a nice curved wall with that. This method always feels very flimsy and fragile when you start doing it &mdash; you&#8217;re just laying tape over empty space &mdash; but after a second layer of tape the whole thing really takes shape and becomes a stronger, but still very flexible, surface. <\/p>\n<p>I did two or three layers of paper mach\u00e9 over this neck area, since it&#8217;ll have to support the weight of the head. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-20.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-20.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- adding paper mache to the neck\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Just about done! And you can see the fangs are thicker now. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-22.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-22.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- letting the paper mache dry\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here he is drying on my kitchen counter. One thing you can see here that I forgot to document is the finger bones running down the middle of the wings. I made these out of thin strips of craft foam that I cut out. I was very mindful of not letting the wings get too heavy, since the membranes are just one flimsy sheet of paper, so I cut the finger bones super thin &mdash; three bones each, for four fingers, so twelve pieces. They&#8217;re held in place with small pieces of paper mach\u00e9. Luckily they&#8217;re lightweight enough to not cause the wings to sag at all. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-thumbs.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-thumbs.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- adding the thumbs to the wings\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the neck was drying, I added thumb bones on the corners of the wings; I made them out aluminum foil, taped them on, and added a layer of paper mach\u00e9 over them. Aluminum foil is nice and easy to turn into lightweight shapes, but it really doesn&#8217;t want to take the paper mach\u00e9 at all, so it&#8217;s annoying to work with. The paste-soaked paper won&#8217;t stick to the aluminum foil, but it&#8217;ll stick to itself, so it helps to start by wrapping a strip of paper around the shape so the ends connect, locking it in place, and then build out from there.<\/p>\n<p>When all this paper mach\u00e9 was dry, I flipped the bat over and did some work on the back. I decided to be a bit lazy and not build out a real back shape for this guy &mdash; easy to justify &#8217;cause no one will see this part when he&#8217;s hanging up near the ceiling. So instead I just covered up all the exposed foam board and tape with some paper mach\u00e9, just to neaten it up a bit. You can see the back in the last pic below.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-23.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-23.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- making the hook to hang the bat from the ceiling\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I also had to figure out how I&#8217;m eventually going to hang the bat on our ceiling during the Halloween party. I settled on a solution using a hook I made out of a piece of a wire hanger, and some heavy duty packing tape. The tape is key &mdash; if you were to install something like this hook right in the paper mach\u00e9 of the body, it&#8217;s very likely to tear out, or at least stretch and warp that part of the sculpture. The packing tape lets you anchor the hook in a wide, flat, strong, non-tearable surface, and then you can paper mach\u00e9 over that to lock it in place. The tape won&#8217;t rip, and the weight gets distributed much more evenly throughout the tape and the layer of paper mach\u00e9 that&#8217;s covering it. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-24.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-24.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- finishing the hook\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So this central hook will hang on a loop of fishing line that I&#8217;ll attach to a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Toggle_bolt\" target=\"_blank\">toggle bolt<\/a> I already have installed in my ceiling. I first inserted this toggle bolt to hold up my <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/giant-spider-halloween-party-decoration\/\">giant spider decoration<\/a> a few years ago, and now just about every year I find a new use for it. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-25.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-25.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- installing the hook in the back\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I&#8217;m concerned that the bat&#8217;s wings aren&#8217;t sturdy enough to not sag under their own weight after a while &mdash; they don&#8217;t sag when I pick the thing up, but a flimsy paper mach\u00e9 sculpture like this can definitely sag and warp over time due to gravity &mdash; so I&#8217;m going to attach the wings to ceiling as well. To do this I&#8217;ll just loop some fishing line over each main wing bone and use a thumbtack to stick &#8217;em to the ceiling. That should do it. <\/p>\n<p>I won&#8217;t actually hang the thing up &#8217;til it&#8217;s 100% finished. Let&#8217;s take a look at our progress with the paper mach\u00e9&#8230; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-26.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-26.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- front view\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-27.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/papier-mache-bat-27.jpg\" alt=\"Papier mache bat -- back view\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next up: <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/giant-paper-mache-bat-part-3\/\">part 3 &mdash; painting and hanging!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See part one of this paper mach\u00e9 bat project here. Now, where were we? When we left off, I&#8217;d just added the wing membranes, and the head was nearly finished but not yet attached to the body. I cut the teeth out of an aluminum cookie sheet, and I put a layer of paper mach\u00e9 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[98,137,25,23,60,3,85,9],"class_list":["post-864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animals","tag-bat","tag-ceiling","tag-decoration","tag-halloween-decorations","tag-paper-mache","tag-prop","tag-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions\/920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}