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Hi all, I need to pick the collective brains please.
I am a fair way into a new project. I have a figure/art doll with wire armature and pulp bodywork. He is essentially a dryad, crouched down with trunk like feet and twig hands. The face is meant to mirror that of a green man.
I have a fairly successful base but am running into real problems with the leaves and acorns on the face and body. Tissue pulp is ok but I can't model it finely enough and sanding will be impossible as the action will just knock the relief leaves off the surface.
I am considering laminating some sheets of tissue and then cutting out leaves and acorns. This still leaves me with the problem of fixing them to his features.
He is about 12" high so I am working in quite fine detail.
Help 
Anything you can think of would be gratefully recieved to save his foliage.
Charlotte
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Newmodeller,
Have you considered doing a mixed media project? Polymer clay makes great acorns and leaves, I just finished a small squirrel figure made of polymer clay holding a small acorn. I work in both polymer clay and paper mache although paper mache is definitely my favorite. I make many of the eyes for my paper mache animals from polymer clay.--Moni 
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I'd suggest that lamination would work well with the leaves but I recommend a fairly thin white (or green) paper rather than tissue. Laminate a few layers, bending them into leaf shapes as you go. Then trim the edges with scissors.
To stick them onto the figure, perhaps a spirit glue or a hot glue?
The acorns - probably as Moni says . . . polymer clay. Or whittle them from a piece of wood. If you have a piece of ramin, that is used for a lot of dowels and mouldings, it can be carved quite well and/or finished with a Dremel sander or grinder. I use wood for the beaks of birds. Sacrilege ain't it?
Sounds fun.
DavidO
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Hi Charlotte
When I made a mirror last year I made the leaves separately, sanded and ready to go then carefully attatched them with several layers of tissue paper so when it was dry it only needed very fine sanding.
You could use foil for making the acorns.
Sue.
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I knw I sound like a broken record, but I'd suggest paper clay. You can build up with this stuff, then sculpt the clay. It sands really easily too so if you need to do any sanding when you're done, it can be smoothed very quickly.
Tis all I can offer, though I know you didn't wanna hear that.
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Thanks all,
I have been resisting paperclay, mainly on the grounds that I am incredibly stiff necked and purist! 
(or should that be tight with cash).
I think that I am going to try both lamination and paper clay. There is an element of the design that leaves produced from lamination will suit best, he is intended to have a cloak of ivy with small birds and moths in it. This I can manufacture as a sheet of overlapping leaves But the face foliage is going to have to be paper clay and (horrors of horrors) glued onto to the finished piece.
It serves me right for working so small.
Thanks for all the excellent advice.
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I would make laminated leaves with a thin wire running down the center of the leaf and sticking out a couple of inches beyond the top of the leaf. You could glue it on (trimming off the excess wire first), or drill small holes with a needle drill and insert/glue the wire where you want them, which would let the leaves flare out a bit, if that's appropriate.
If you're not familiar with needle drills and bits, go to Google Images and type in 'needle drill'. They are usually very narrow drill bits that you insert into a pin vise, and drill the small holes manually. Using these bits in a regular power drill motor is often frustrating as the bits break under the high speeds. If you have a Dremel MotoTool (aka Dremel), you might insert a small bit and drill at the slowest speed.
Sue
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Thanks Sue,
you have actually hit on a variant of the solution I have been considering. I plan to build a laminate mask over a mould of the main models face this can then be pinned and glued to the model when dry and should give me the finish I need. I can also do the ivy and animal cloak using the same method. Will post pictures if successful, otherwise will dissolve into the corner in a pool of tear stained PM.
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Now, now.... don't talk like that!
Look at Wilbur and Orville. How many failures did they have before they succeeded. Look at Thomas Edison. He had 100 times more failures than Wilbur and Orville!
You'll get it! Just keep at it. Don't get frustrated. Take your time. And take it easy on yourself. Don't get too wrapped up in your projects, or get too attached to any one piece.
You are loved! Keep on truckin'!
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