Plaster Platypus

My husband and I have a long running alliance with this very special, rare animal- we feel that if we were not humans, we would most certainly be platypuses.  This has led to many a-platypus in our lives: platypus t-shirts, platypus puppets, books, etc... So this year for my husband's birthday I decided to make an embodiment of our favorite creature to hang along side the real taxidermy we have in our house.

What You'll Need:

Wire Mesh- I used an old screen door screen
Wire Cutters
Newspaper and/or Newsprint
Paper Mod Podge
Sponge brush
Gesso
Plaster of Paris
Paints and paintbrushes
Drill and screws for mounting it

1.  Make the base structure with wire mesh.

This is the back, I sewed it up with a loose wire.

2.  Decoupage over the mesh with strips of paper newsprint.

3.  Paint white with gesso- you can stop here after a few layers if you just want a papier-mache platypus and paint it the desired colors.  At this step, I thought that it looked a little too rough and wanted smoother edges, so I added a layer of plaster.

5.  Here is the platypus after a layer of plaster, I sanded it lightly after it dried for a few hours.

6.  Now for the fun part!  Painting it!

I got my dear friend Jessica of Hipster Teaparty to help me.  She is a very talented painter and I just love an excuse to hang out with her whenever I can!

Et, voila!  I screwed the bottom corners into this frame I had laying around.