Cinderellee, Cinderelleee Dress Form - Journal Page

When I adorn the paper mache dress form with my one of a kind fiber arts, I hope that thoughts of fanciful little birds will offer their inspiration.

Paper Mache Full Dress Form

Childhood memories lead to images flitting through my head from fancy filled Disney films. Since I'm always exploring different ways to display my fiber arts works, the concept of a new paper mache dress form began it's first stage of actualization in my journal.

The idea starts to take shape. The figure is approximately 36" tall. I can't wait for the front of the figure to dry so that I can start to paper mache the back side. All of this was constructed from the Saturday newspaper.

Paper Mache Bust Dress Form

In anticipation of our next North County Artists in Action open studios event, I've been researching full and bust dress forms to display my wearable quilt art and original jewelry designs. I was able to pick up a bust form at a local charity shop for a reasonable price, but began thinking that these forms might be a bit too standardized for the display of art work, especially if there were several of them in one venue. Since I have a stash of newspaper to cover work surfaces when I paint, I grabbed several sheets and scrunched them into forms that approximated a bust form. I held the paper together with masking tape and this allowed me to further refine the shape. Once a fairly reasonable form developed, I mixed up some flour, water and white glue, tore strips of newspaper and set about covering the form. Once the form was dried, I applied a coat of gesso. While the form was drying and "setting up", I went to the garage to look for materials that could be made into a stand and base. I cut an old broom handle to a size that might work, found a scrap of pine, drilled a hole through through the center of the pine scrap, drilled a pilot hole into the broom handle and then inserted a 3" brass screw. I carved and sanded the pole's end to a point so that it could be inserted through the paper mache and internal wadded up sheets of newspaper that were inside of the form. A little more paper mache strips were added around the hole where the pole was inserted and this was later touched up with more gesso. I haven't decided yet what the final finish will be, but I may leave it white and merely coat it with non yellowing, matte polyurethane.