Paper pulp dipping

My friend Judy & I decided to have a go at this.  I’ve never done it before, never seen it done and haven’t watched any on-line tutorials, but I have seen some superb results.  The piece below, made by Jill Elias, for the recent Primrose Paper Arts exhibition in Sydney is a great example of the technique.

Fantastic texture, hasn’t it?
I don’t know what she has used as the armature for the grey pulp to adhere to but the front white piece might be string or thread under tension.  I’ll have to ask, when I next see her.

So, the plan was to go into this blind, muck about to see what we could do with no preconceived ideas and, perhaps, explore a more structured approach for experimentation in the future.  What could be better than having no idea what you are doing and just seeing what turns out?

Using recycled cardstock I made the pulp and we started cutting and shaping various gauges of galvanized wire and some small pieces of copper mesh.

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Then we started dipping into the pulp.

The (slightly wobbly) numbers above indicate the following:

1. The original galvanized bird wire
2. After one dipping
3. After two dippings
4. After three dippings

Between dippings we allowed the pulp-covered-wire to semi-dry.  Well, essentially once it had stopped dripping we re-immersed the wire into the vat.  The build up of ‘paper’ is evident in the photo above.  Things were looking up, so after dipping each shape we hung them around the room and continued to work our way round and round the strung washing-line re-dipping each shape until we achieved some decent coverage.

Here are some of the dried pieces:

So, I came home with a holey bowl, a torn ‘rag’, half a broken crown and a very “Play School” style flower.

Don’t you love a day of experimentation when you have no expectations in creating a masterpiece?  Now we just have to think how we take this further.  Maybe time for some research before our next immersion.

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