BAUBLE A MONTH CHALLENGE - OCTOBER

This months bauble is another paper crafted one. I actually made it earlier on in the month and would have uploaded pictures and info then....but something niggled me a bit about the final piece and I wasn't quite that happy with the look so I sat it aside for a while with the thought of perhaps making something else...something completely different...

...but time has restricted me from doing so...and actually giving it a few weeks to ponder over and the bauble has now sort of grown on me. I did two versions so I'll show you the basic original and the second one I made with some additional work...and my thoughts on what I believe went wrong with it.

BAUBLE A MONTH CHALLENGE 2012 -

 

OCTOBER

 

'THE MOLINA BAUBLE'

The bauble is not my own design but one from a very talented paper artist Carlos N Molina...hence why I have called it 'The Molina Bauble'. Carlos is someone who has inspired me no end with the way he creates pieces from the tiny and extraordinary shoes and bags to ornaments and larger sculptures. He is internationally known paper sculptor, crafter and designer and has exhibited in many countries and has published books. His work can be found on his websites plus Flickr and Etsy and has, over the years very generously shared some of his techniques on his website via tutorials.

His Flickr profile page gives links to where you can see and buy his work -

http://www.flickr.com/people/carlosnmolina/

and this is a quick link to the bauble tutorial which I took my inspiration from -

http://carlosnmolina.com/paperOrnaments/paperOrnaments.html

So, this, following his tutorial, is my first attempt.

 I had a stash of old UK A-Z road map pages so used these for the paper strips. At first I was a little concerned that the paper would be too thin and floppy so I reduced the measurements a fraction to make a slightly smaller sphere shape. The shorter paper strips then held their curve much better. I also used a short length of plastic drinking straw inside rather than a roll of paper as the support - it was of little concern to me what colour or material I used for the support as it was not going to be visible in my bauble and the straws were to hand and proved an ideal item to use. I also took the design one step further by ensuring I had enough wire running through the piece to allow a loop to be formed at the base so I could make and attach a tassel (made from matching paper of course!).

I was very pleased with the outcome but decided a few days later to make a second with a little more embellishment -

The inspiration came from seeing an antiques TV show that was looking at some very old world map globes and I suddenly thought that the bauble using the road map papers would actually look quite attractive if it had a little ageing and antiquing treatment. As with many other pieces I have done I achieved this by using those good old tried and trusted Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Rather than trying to distress and age the already made bauble, I made a second piece from scratch and treated/inked up the paper before assembling.

As shown in the image above - the three stages of ageing using the inks top piece is the untreated paper, the middle one after colouring all over using 'Old Paper' and the bottom strip after edging with 'Walnut Stain'. The same was done of the paper used for the tassel and the circles which are attached to the base and top where the strip ends all meet together (used to hide the ends and create a neater appearance). I held off from distressing and tearing at the edges as I thought this would probably weaken the paper too much (and this, afterwards proved top be a good call) because the strips all need to be uniform in size and shape to enable a consisted curve. I did however, add a little texture and interest by hand stitching a little cotton thread here and there, just to accentuate the road map markings.

Here's the finished product.....

Can you see what has happened?

It has 'drooped' and formed a mushroom shape instead of a sphere. This form didn't take shape immediately...but sagged after a few hours of hanging. Sadly I didn't get a photo of the 'before' bauble and wish I had so that you can get a better idea of just how much the shape altered. It was a perfect sphere after it had been assembled and I was really happy with look...but clearly that didn't last...

So, what went wrong? Well I made the bauble to the exact dimensions as the first one and the paper is the same so it had to be the inking treatment that caused the problem (I discounted the addition of the stitching because I made a third inked one without this embellishment and it also sagged).

Although I took care not to over ink the paper it clearly was too thin and porous and the ink changed and weakened the fibre structure considerably so the paper became even more soft and flexible and couldn't hold the curve.....and, just like a very cheap paper greetings card that refuses to stand up, the bauble was weak and sagged.

So, how to remedy this? Well, I could make one out of different and thicker grade/weight paper but that defeats the object (although I do actually have some very nice map design printed cardstock so could use that to get a similar looking piece) so the answer can be found in two ways - strengthen the paper by either making a much smaller bauble (with shorter and thicker strips so there are less fibres and the structure is stand up better) or laminating the paper with either a second layer - ie glueing on a second layer of same paper or using a thicker paper or card which would be on the underside and therefore not seen....or even using acetate. I might have a go at this at a later date to see if this is proven to be correct....but as have already said...time is running out....

....and November is creeping up on us a pace of knots so the next bauble design has be worked on very soon!

See you then!