Booked a Mannequin...

… with Winnie the Pooh.

Wow that really doesn’t make sense, but truly, it’s what I did… I took Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne, and I covered a Mannequin with it. Turned - out - GREAT.

I’ll elaborate.

I’ve got this mannequin; I bought her on ebay for about $35 when I was making jewelry. I needed a way to assemble some necklaces, and then a way to photograph them. She didn’t work so great being black, so I spray painted her top half white. 

Anyway, here she hangs out looking all strange, and I had this idea…. Cover her in text from a book, then decorate her in fancy trims.

Once I finished covering her in the book I decided against the fancy trims since she looked so cool.  Fancy trims will go elsewhere.

Here’s what I did…

I ripped the pages from Winnie The Pooh using the edge of a ruler, trimmed down the margins also ripping against the edge of the ruler, making the pages a bit on the small side.

(took this pic before trimming margins)

I got an old Tupperware container, one of those big ones you could put a layered cake in…. I put Elmers glue in it, then added water to a runny consistency. There is no science to this, and it doesn’t matter how much water you add as long as you don’t add MORE water than you have glue.

Then I took an exacto blade to the mannequin and cut off all the raised ridges of plastic I could find.

I put the paper (one sheet at a time) in another tub of water before putting it in the glue tub. (If you are wondering why the water is milky, I had been working for a time, using this water to rinse off my hands before I realized I hadn’t taken a photo of the water step.)

The glue tub step was a very messy step until I realized it was easier to use my fingers to squeegee  off the extra glue, making it much less messy. In this first few images of application, glue is everywhere….

Also, be sure to use a drop cloth. I was working on the floor, not a table.

I started in the armpit, but you could start anywhere. (See how these have way too much glue...)

Since I wanted to be adding layers, I wasn’t so concerned with small gaps between pages, and I started with text that didn’t have images.

I’ve just finished, you can see how the paper is slightly transparent while it’s still wet…

And this is dry:

She literally lives in my front room.
Partying next to a mini disco ball. :D (given to me by my adorable friend Teri Anderson  (Teri is super super cool, disco-ball-kinda-cool.) 

Now I need a fun project for the trims I purchased and didn’t use.

Tips…

1. Dropcloth,

2. Water tub as well as glue tub.

3. Dry rag handy for hands, wet rag handy for wipe-up.

4. Squeegee paper after dipping in glue, before applying.

5. Trim off or sand down uneven places before applying paper. Smooth finish needed.

6. On final layer, overlap everything since paper shrinks slightly once dry.

7. I folded paper over lumps, when I got near the end, I wished I had torn the paper so it would lay flat… thought the folds would look cool, but it turns out the tears look cooler.

8. Let dry on drop cloth.

I want to do more... this was crazy fun.