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I am restoring a piece of furniture which has some quite complex wooden mouldings on it - not shapes that are easy to cut / plane / make with a router. Is it possible to copy the exisiting shapes in p.m. by making a mould from them (in what ? plaster ? resin ? silicone? plasticene?) and then shaping pulp based p.m. in this mould to make copies of the shape?
If so, any ideas on recipes for pulp based p.m., good release agents for the moulds etc.
To add to the fun some of the mouldings need to be curved and I anlyhave straight patterns to copy from - is it possible to demould the p.m. when it is partly set and bend the shapes?
All help appreciated.
Thanks.
Hi Chris,
I have just come across a product that may be useful for copying your mouldings. I found it by accident when I was looking for something else. It is called "Wireform" and is made by a company called Amaco. I don't know what country you are in: it is a US company but I found it in a craft shop here in the UK.
Basically it is a very thin wire mesh that you can press over the object you want to copy. It is a little bit pricey but I imagine it would be very effective. They have a website: www.amaco.com
If you pressed this mesh over the moulding to get the imprint, you could remove it, line it with cling-film (this would hold the shape and act as a release agent) and press your pulp mixture into the mould.
Use the ordinary straight forward pulp recipe (as in how-tos) using which type of glue you like. You should be able to do a bit of "manoeuvring" with a dry mould, once you have added some more wet pulp to it. I think we all do this occaionally. Any small areas that are not made up properly in the finished result could have a little pulp or other filler smoothed on top.
Hope this helps - let us know how you get on.
Jackie
Thanks - I'll follow this up with AMACO. I have tried using papier mache pulp with plaster moulds and it wasn't too bad but the PM has too low a density and is very soft. I suppose if I built it up from sheet it would be denser & stronger but that will be very slow to get up to 3/8" thick (which I need in parts). Is there any way to get the pulp based PM denser & stronger (I need to get a smooth polished surface when it is finished)? IT seems to me the low density is inherent in using a fibrous product if I can't line up the fibres to get them well packed?
You could try mixing some plaster in with the pulp - anyone else have ideas on this?
Try making your pulp and squeezing out moisture, add boiled linseed oil to the mixture, you will have to play around with the ammounts, but this I think should give you the strengh and finish that you after. Let me know how it turns out
Terry
There is this moulding clay or something like that that I have seen in Michael's. What you do is put in on the think that you want to copy and it makes a rubber mold or something like that and from that rubber mold you can make the mold in which to pack pulp paper to duplicate your piece. This may not be real exact but it is close. I think the product is called 'moulding clay or something like that. This is just off the top of my head for now. I'll come back with the exact information tomorrow, I hope. Also, you can try using heavy duty aluminum foil to get the shape of the object that you want to copy. You can coat the foil on the inside with several layers of plaster of paris or any of the products you mentioned on to the inside of the foil mold to help it keep some shape. You something to pour some plaster of paris into a box or something and place your foil thing into the plaster of paris. After the plaster dries, you should be able to take our your foil thing and have the mould of whatever it is that you are trying to duplicate. Oh yeah, don't forget to coat your foil with something like Pam or vaseline for easy removal.
I hope its not too late, can be of some use and it makes sense.
I'm in the process of making paper mache chairs and bench from a wooden frame..i have one almost ready to work on.'
i took the wooden chair. covered it with alumiumn foil...then put strips of first brown paper sacks, then white paper, then white typing paper type paper again...once dried i cut it with a carpet knife down the back and across the top...the chair poped off pretty easy and neatly.....( it's 23" high) and seems sturdy..i took strips of paper and put it back together. adding some newspaper to fill in any empty room inside the sculpture....to give it strength . so far it seems to be working okay...I plan to slowly cover it in paper pulp..then add a Rabbit or something..
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