Work continues on the shore of the sand sea. The tables are finished and the rocks and beach are complete. The large rocks are made of high density foam from Van Dyke’s Taxidermy Supply. They have been carved and painted with black paint. I laid out a path of drywall screws for my puppet’s magnetic feet to cling to and then covered all of the surfaces with black tissue paper from Dick Blick Art Materials. The rock surfaces were then painted using a sea sponge and grey acrylic paint to give the final textured effect.
The foam rocks are secured to the plywood bases with glue and nails. Photo by Emma Charles.
The drywall screws form a path in the foam rock for the magnetic puppet feet.
Metal for the puppets to walk on is attached to the flat base before it is covered with tissue paper. Photo by Adam Hoffsette.
Gift wrapping tissue paper is not recommended for this technique. We tried it after running out of the paper from Blick’s and it ended up looking like wadded up trash bags because it wouldn’t dissolve into a paper paste as needed. It did work well for forming some of the landscape though. Photo by Adam Hoffsette.
The rock surface is created using black tissue paper and glue mixed with water. Photo by Adam Hoffsette.
Click to see a short papering demonstration where a blend of Elmer’s glue and water is brushed onto the paper with a stiff paint brush. The brush is mashed into the paper at the edges to dissolve it so they will blend with other layers. Filmed by Adam Hoffsette.
The rock surfaces are all covered in tissue paper.
Painting rock texture with light grey paint and a natural sponge.
Christiane Cegavske 