The Life and Times of Baby Cthulhu

February 9, 2009 · Posted in General, Recipes · 1 Comment 

Or: how not to make a large papier-mâché sculpture

I can’t remember the exact year of Baby Cthulhu’s birth, but it was probably 2002. Hodgestar and I thought that it would be neat to make a mascot for the CLAWs orientation stall. We made a frame out of thick wire, taped plastic bags to it, made a skin out of newspaper strips covered in wallpaper paste, and hurriedly painted it. And it looked something like this:

Cthulhu v1.0

Some time later I added more volume to the head, and painted the whole thing some more. And it looked something like this:

Cthulhu v1.2

The problem is that while the strips-and-glue papier-mâché technique is very useful in making smooth geometric shapes, it’s a bit crap when you’re trying to make a freeform sculpture. I wasn’t very happy with the results, but I didn’t have any better ideas.

Several years passed. After the CLAWroom ceased to exist and Cthulhu no longer had a home, I lugged him from flat to flat, parked him on top of cupboards, and occasionally vacuumed him and picked off peeling bits of paper. I had put so much work into him already that I didn’t have the heart to get rid of him.

Then I made a little dragon sculpture out of a commercial papier-mâché clay, and I realised what medium I should have been using in the first place. In February last year, I decided to renovate Cthulhu properly.

Cthulhu v2.0

I made my own pulp out of shredded newspapers and wallpaper paste, and was able to use it to add a lot more volume to the sculpture. I reshaped the tentacles, moved the eyes to where an octopus actually has eyes, and created a coarse skin texture by pressing random crosshatching into the surface with a blunt knife.

Unfortunately, thick papier-mâché takes a really long time to dry, and shredding newspaper by hand is also very time-consuming. Since I left the project until the last minute (as usual), I ended up not finishing the base, and doing a rather hurried paint job. I think it was so windy that most of the spray-on lacquer blew away.

Nevertheless, I was a lot more optimistic about getting Cthulhu to look good, and I restarted the renovation at the beginning of this year. After repeatedly failing to make time to shred more newspaper, I found a cheap paper shredder, which was a real lifesaver (although I managed to jam it very thoroughly within about ten minutes of using it for the first time.)

I gave Cthulhu a bottom…

…then flipped him over and repaired the cracks…

…and left him in the sun to dry…

…before painting and varnishing him — first applying varnish with a paintbrush, and later filling in hard-to-reach places with lacquer spray.

Cthulhu v2.1Cthulhu v2.1

I didn’t have time to paint and varnish the underside, but apart from that he is basically finished. This week he is once again up on campus being a fresher lure, and afterwards he’s going back on top of my cupboard, to wait patiently until the stars are right (possibly August). Now I can actually make other things out of papier-mâché; I’m thinking of weaning myself off my years-long habit slowly, perhaps by making some slightly smaller baby Cthulhus.

If you want to make your own large sculpture out of paper, I strongly recommend that you:

  • Go directly to mushy papier-mâché; newspaper strips are a complete waste of time.
  • Invest in a paper shredder. Seriously; just do it.

My papier-mâché recipe:

Shred newspaper. If you have a paper shredder, just cut it into strips across the grain; the strips will disintegrate easily. Put the newspaper in a bucket full of water overnight (or, if you need it more urgently, boil it on the stove in a pot you’re not planning to use for food ever again). Resist the urge to mush up the newspaper while it’s floating around in the water; it may seem easier, but you will create a suspension which is extremely difficult to drain, end up with too much water, and get glue instead of clay (if you have inadvertently made glue, add extra dry shredded newspaper to absorb the excess moisture). Remove the newspaper from the water in handfuls, squeezing out as much water as you can. In a mixing container, keep mushing up the newspaper, adding wallpaper paste and small amounts of water, until you have a mostly smooth mass which is slightly sticky and holds its shape. It should be the approximate consistency of mashed potato.

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