She's Off Her Rocker

The First Moon I ever Made

I thought it would be fun to show you all my first moon ever. It was made in March 2007. So I have been making them every day for over two years now. The first one was made with a punch ball balloon as a form. I used a plaster wrap to make the form and then a pulp mache. He was about 12 inches deep.

I'm almost embarrassed of him now, but we all have to start somewhere!

By that summer I had advanced to the kind shown below, these were huge, like 21 inches and very hard to pack and ship....much bigger and the facial features attempted came from the classic 1920's postcard man in the moon, the one with the witches dancing beneath. I had figured out very quickly that homeade paper mache cooked paste and brown grocery bags were best on a form of a huge kid's play ball. Balloons don't hold their shape well enough, they expand and shrink too easily with temperature change. The brown paper strips combined with traditional cooked flour and water paste are very strong and more cost effective than plaster strips. I practiced making my own pulp combinations but its quicker and easier to use fast mache now. I also add in my own cooked glue and sometimes other things. The result is a truly rock hard material. I now go one step further and cover/fill and refine with joint compound and or patching plaster. Its been a fun, self taught process the whole way!

I wish I had kept some of my earliest ones, now!