You should consider working for the Renaissance Festivals building their structures. As you know We love Greenman. Great Job.

I do the Renaissance Festivals.

WOW!
Great stuff. Your greenman blows me away.
I know a certain Redhead who is going to go gaga over your stuff.:)

Beautiful work!

Mabel

Oh! I just love gargoyles. Great work, thanks for sharing!

I had a request for my formula for papercrete so thought I'd post a copy here just in case it might be of help to someone.

Cement and Paper Fiber Sculpting

Materials

Portland Cement (NOT a concrete mix just the cement powder)

Paper Fibre (I buy the paper insultation you can get from Lowes. It is

already shredded. You can take newspaper and shred it, soak it, mush it more

but this saves a lot of work).

Bucket of joint compound

Mixture

You have to experiment here to get it to the point it feels like clay. Off

hand I'd say 2 parts paper fiber to 2 parts paper cement. I then just put in

a handful of joint compound, add water and mix by hand. If it doesn't feel

like clay I add more cement and more joint compound.

You can do 3 parts paper to 1 part cement if you just want bulk and are not

concerned about strength. The higher the paper fibre the longer it will take

to dry.

I just do this in a bucket. I've not tried a large scale mixing because a)

you can get tired out pretty easily and then you are wasting the rest and b) I

don't know if it would dry out too quickly.

IMPORTANT!: Wear a mask and rubber gloves. Cement dust easily goes into the

air and it is not a good idea to breathe it. Also, I wear thin rubber gloves.

I much prefer no gloves as I like to feel my subject but the reality is that

cement will suck all the moisture out of your hands.

I've been asked if one can add sand. I've only tried this once. It makes the

mixture a lot less claylike and takes longer to dry and will slump easier, but

you can do it. The plus side is likely added strength.

Armature

I try to avoid anything that will rust as an armature because I just don't

know if the paper fibres will wick water all the way through the sculpture.

If it does it could cause rust on the armature thus splitting the sculpture.

This may not happen at all. I would say though if using an iron armature to

make sure to seal it with paint BEFORE applying the cement. This is probably

a good idea with any type of cement mixture in any case.

My armatures are made from styrofoam, pvc piping and aluminum piping. If it

is a "sqaut" figure, meaning triangular or a column type figure I just use

styrofoam but it won't have the stength necessary for limbs. So for my

Greenman figure I used pvc piping. My gargoyles though have all just been

styrofoam, including the one with wings. The wings were just the blue

styrofoam sheeting you get for siding. The papercrete adds amazing strength.

The Process

BUILD A GOOD ARMATURE! Make sure that it is to the proportions you want

before applying cement. I've had to do some chiseling because I didn't take

into account the extra width added by the cement and threw a piece out of

proportion. I know it's common sense but I don't always have common sense so

thought I'd give the warning in case there is someone else like me out there.

I coat the armature from the bottom up, when it is completely covered with one

layer I let it set for a day IF it has things like "legs", such as with the

greenman. I needed the strength there in the legs before I could build up the

"musculature" with more cement. This technique worked great!

Once you can start adding "muscles", and bulking up the figure you pretty

quickly learn if you are adding too much at once so it slumps. Be patient.

My experience with papercrete is that you can add additional layers after a

piece is dry and it holds nicely. I've even gone back months later and done

more work on a piece. I know this isn't conventional wisdom but it works for

me.

Make sure and cover the bottom of the armature as well with cement. You don't

want bugs getting up inside your armature. It is said that carpenter ants

love styrofoam.

How long does it last?

Short answer. I don't know. Papercrete houses have mostly been built in arid

areas. And they advise not sealing the surface of a house too much so it can

breathe... BUT you don't have to worry about that for a sculpture so SEAL

AWAY. I use paint and polyurethane. I have one sculpture that has sat

unsealed for at least one winter. He has minor surface crackling but no

stuctural damage. I think that my sculptures will last my lifetime, but I

don't know. Still, do any of us know how long our art will last outdoors

anyway? When I sculpt a piece I do try to think about how water might pool

on it and try to make it so water will run off as much as possible. Ice in

crevices can be deadly to cement pieces. But paper fibres give a lot of

strength to a piece. I am always amazed how I can coat a piece of styrofoam

with this mixture and once it is dry I can stand on it with no damage.

Painting

For my Greenman piece I used a sponge to paint with. This makes sure the

figure gets well covered. I did an enamel base and then added acrylics for

highlights. I used spray polyurethane but want to try the kind from a can

sometime.

You don't have to paint of course but I still think sealing is a good idea

with polyurethane or something else.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jonathan's Sculpture Page

Thanks for these super instructions. It's good to hear how things were done from the folks who actually did it. Remarkable pieces of sculpture too. Thanks again.

Jonathan,

Welcome. Your sculpture is fabulous. I too love papercrete but have reservations about how durable it is. I left a frog outside all winter just to see what would happen, it still seems solid but it did get mouldy spots which actually made it look better. I don't know if the mould has weakened it.

Thanks for sharing your work with us.

Amy

Jonathan
Your work is terrific.
I've been messing with small items in papercrete and found that 00 dolomite sand works well to keep the putty like texture of the papercrete but also gives it a hard smooth shell when cured.
Using a special S type Portland cement(used for stucco) gives a very creamy texture and increased work time for papercrete as well.
Papercrete is a cool medium and I hope to do more with it once I can find a cheap supply of pulp.:)

Dear tufaenough,
Thanks for the tip about the cement for stucco. I have never tried anything other than regular cement so I am very interested in your advice.

Also, Amy, curious to know if your frog was sealed or not? The molding is likely due to the paper fibres holding the moisture. One thought that occurs to me, besides sealing with some type of waterproofing, is to use a higher concentration of cement in the mixture for the outer coating of the object.

Hi Jonathan
I use a specialty type S from a company called LeHigh.
It's used to make strong stucco.
It's not expensive and has additional admix that make it terrific for armature work.
It probably has some of the same properties you get from joint compound. You definitely must use gloves with this stuff. It contains a lot of lime.
I've only done very small pieces however and only for a few months.
I'm going to try a joint compound mix and see if I like that as well.

Jonathan, your sculptures are fabulous! First time I ever heard of papercrete. Thanks for the instructions too. Going to have to put this one on the back burner.

Keep up the good work.

Old hippy
Papercrete is cool but it doesn't carve worth a darn!:)

Jonathan.

No, the frog wasn't sealed. I did it without sealing to see what would happen because I read on one of the papercrete building sites that papercrete will become mouldy and eventually get soft and deteriorate if left in contact with wet soil.

The frog sat on my deck rail all winter. Next winter I'm going to sit him on the ground all winter and see what happens.

I'm sure you're right about the mould being from the paper fibers holding water.

Amy

Great instructions, EXCEPT your proportions. What is a "part" of paper or cement? Is this by weight, or volume?