Sunday, November 9, 2008

adding mechanics to paperman







The inside of this paper mache figure was pretty tight to work in. His head is full size, but the room inside was limited due to the thickness of the paper mache. Should you ever decide to make a paper mache figure, you only need about a third of the thickness this one has. Once you have his head sanded, you can use a hardener on him like laquer to make him more rigid.



Even the jaw was made from paper!



I drilled a hole in the bottom of his neck and ran a brass tube up into his head and dremeled out a channel for the tube to sit in on the post. I then ran a steel rod up through the tube and bent it to use as a control for the eyes. It sits in between the brass eye connector bent in an "L" shape so when it is moved side to side, it will move the eyes. at the bottom of the brass tube which sits in the channel on the head post, I bent another 90 degree angle and connected a wooden ball to it. That will be the thumb control which manipulates the eyes.



I drilled holes in his forehead and added brass tubes and a wooden dowel to support them which I glued together. I then ran brass rods through them and bent them on the outside of the head for eyebrows. I looped them on the inside and connected them with a spring.



I ran cords for controls for both raising and lowering eyebrows.



I then ran a cord through the hole that held the original cord for the mouth an connected a spring control where there had been a rubber band.



I put a dowel with a pulley on it for the mouth string inside the head instead of the eye hook that had been there.



Then I sculpted some eyebrows out of magic sculpt for him and here he is! (the dummy on the right, of course...)



Have a great week! I am putting another figure with cross eyes up on Ebay so if your interested , check him out. Happy venting! and as always, If I can help you with anything, email me at gepettosworkshop@yahoo.com.