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
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| 1. Make the base structure with wire mesh. |
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| This is the back, I sewed it up with a loose wire. |
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| 2. Decoupage over the mesh with strips of paper newsprint. |
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| 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. |
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| 5. Here is the platypus after a layer of plaster, I sanded it lightly after it dried for a few hours. |
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| 6. Now for the fun part! Painting it! |
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| 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! |
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| Et, voila! I screwed the bottom corners into this frame I had laying around. |
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