Page 13 - Creating Whimsical Characters Using Simple Wood and Paper Forms, Wire, Paperclay, and Encaustic Medium

Before starting, let’s talk about safety and best practices:

• When using tools or cutting wire, you should always wear safety

goggles.

• When assembling the parts, use a wood glue like Elmer’s Wood
Glue Max. It’s strong, it’s waterproof, it sands well, and you can
stain or paint it.

• Be sure to use wax paper to protect surfaces when gluing parts

together.

• When working with wire mesh, wear inexpensive white cotton
gloves to protect your hands and provide padding for bending

wire with your hands. Use a small dowel or skewer to help with
the bending.

We’re going to start with some simple forms and build up to the
more complex sculptures.

Let’s start with accessories. The artist easel is made out of square

chopsticks cut and glued together with wood glue and the canvas
is an Ampersand Encausticbord trading card. I highly recommend

collecting unfinished wooden chopsticks in all shapes and sizes.

The paint brush is an ornate wooden toothpick covered in
paperclay, and the artist pallet was cut out of card stock with a thin

coat of paperclay applied to both sides.

I’ll talk about the two gargoyle armatures with wings later, but I do
want to point out the different shapes of the wings. There are
examples of patterns for both included on pages 19 and 20.

The drums are pieces of cardboard tubes in various sizes with

circles of wire mesh glued to the top with wood glue.

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