We last left Piggy encased in plaster. Obviously he couldn’t stay there forever.

Step 5 - Prepare Molds for Paper Mache

After the bottom mold had dried it slipped right off the pig without any problems. Well, not quite. Actually the pig had stuck quite fast in this one too. Never mind, I know how to deal with these kind of situations.

This time it broke into three sections.

5 Mold in Pieces
5 Mold in Pieces

I have to admit, I did consider throwing it all away and starting again. But then I remembered duct tape. Maybe with a liberal application of the sticky stuff this could be resurrected.

6 Assembled Mold
6 Assembled Mold

Ta da! Ok, so a few holes, a few mold lines but good enough. On with the show!

Step 6 - Paper Mache

I recently found a new way to do this. You don’t cut the newspaper with scissors, you tear it into little 1”x2” strips. Also, the recommended binding agent is glue, but I used flour just for old times sake. Applying wet paper to plaster is not a good idea and so more of the trusty vaseline was used to prevent the paper from sticking.

This part was actually quite tricky, as the ears on the pig were a little awkward to stuff the newspaper into. I ended up using the blunt end of a small paint brush to push the newspaper into all the little corners.

After leaving the paper to completely dry I applied another coat, and then a final third coat.

The paper mache is supposed to shrink a little when it dries, meaning it should just pop out of the mold without any issues. Surprisingly, this bit worked and I didn’t even have to remove the duct tape from the mold to release the paper.

Step 7 - Final Coat

Here they are, two halves of the piggy.

7 Top & Bottom Castings
7 Top & Bottom Castings

Now, the big question is, do they fit together? Pish, how likely would that be.

8 Look Ma, no join
8 Look Ma, no join

Lots of join issues here. These can all be traced back to the problems with extracting the pig from the mold, as a good 1/4” was lost from the top mold.

However, we’re not finished yet, as we can continue to apply coats of paper mache. I added one coat all over and a second coat just around the middle.

Finished

Here’s a few shots for comparison.

9 Back
9 Back
10 Front
10 Front

Piggy, meet Piggy.

11 Face to Face
11 Face to Face

It’s not perfect (or even close to it) but at least there is a family resemblance. I’m not sure if the fine detail was lost because I used paper mache or just because of the poor mold.

But why leave it there? I think a paint job is needed.