By Zion Marfo

Hi I’m Zion, I come from HTMMA, a school all about tech, arts and mind blowing projects! Recently our 7th grade class has been working on a parade float for the O.B Christmas parade. O.B is a small beach town in San Diego. This little town has been hosting the holiday parade for 38 years!

For this project all of our 7th grade class split up into small groups to make an element of the parade float. I was assigned to make paper mache dogs. Are group has been working really well together, we communicate, and help each other.

The reason our class is making a parade float with dogs is for a non- profit called “The Rescue Dog.” The Rescued Dog, helps save dogs from high-kill shelters and unsafe homes. The company is one of a kind, because you can adopt dogs and also foster dogs until they find a forever home. They pre microchip all there dogs, so they never get lost. Plus it’s not super expensive, and they have all breeds of dogs not only mutts, but purebred dogs too. I really encourage you to check out website because it can help save a dogs life! Here is the link The Rescued Dog – All breed dog rescue.

As I said I was assigned to a group that was making paper mache dogs.That is what I will be teaching you to make. Here are all the materials you will need for this easy craft.

Materials:

Cardboard ( 1 large sheet of cardboard)
Newspaper ( about 50 sheets of newspaper)
Sta-Flo ( 4 cups of sta-flo)
Chicken wire (1 large roll)
Fake Fur ( 2 sheets of fake fur from joannś craft store)
Glue gun & glue sticks Butcher paper ( 1 roll)
Scissors Foam cutter Wire cutters
Exacto knife Foam balls ( 1 pack from michaels )
Paint

Step 1: Scaled Drawing and Paper Mache

You'll need to make a scaled drawing. “A scaled drawing is a drawing that shows a real object with accurate sizes reduced or enlarged by a certain amount (called the scale). Then the matching length on the real thing.” The next step is to make a scaled drawing on paper. Than you will be able to make it better and more clear scaled drawing on ´´rhino´´ a computer program, where you will be able to make a perfect representation of your scaled drawing. Here is the link to rhino. https://www.rhino3d.com/.

Then find an image off the internet, any picture will work. You’ll then need to trace it on large sheet of butcher paper. After that, you will proceed to cut out your butcher paper image and trace it on a large piece cardboard. Next you’ll need to wrap your dog in chicken wire, be sure to leave space to stuff your dog with newspaper. The next step is to crumble up newspaper and put it inside of your paper mache dog, for a 3D affect. Then seal up the hole with more chicken wire, where you left space for the newspaper, afterwards, you will need to paper mache your dog, the most fun step of all.

Get a bowl of Sta- Flo
Cut your newspaper into thin strips using Large drips will cause your dog to dry slower
Dip your strips of paper into your Sta-Flo
Lay your paper strips onto your dog
Repeat until dog is covered add as many layers as desired until you think it looks 3D
Let dry for about 24 hrs

Step 2: Putting Fur on Your Dog

Then, coat the dog in fake fur from head to toe. One of the pitfalls was covering the dog in fur because, it could be confusing on where the fur should go on the dog. Although it may seem easy it’s a difficult step that might take a while to finish. It can truly make or break your paper mache dog.

Make dog eyes by cutting foam balls in half with the foam cutter, then paint them black and add any color you would like for the pupil. Throughout the project we discovered some pitfalls.

Another pitfall our group had is the eyes and the nose of the dog, we were working hard the entire time to make the dog look cute, and also amazing. Now, don’t doubt it, the process to figure out the placement of the eyes and nose can be a challenge. But we did our best to make the eyes match with the dog. Though it was hard to work through all of these pitfalls without getting frustrated.

The most important step is to communicate and do your responsibilities for things to go smoothly. Good luck ! I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did, and it helped you make a paper mache dog you are happy with. It was a very fun project for me, and hopefully for you to!