How it all began

Once upon a time...

    We were super poor and my desire to decorate for Halloween was killing me because I couldn't afford the cute figurines and things at the store. My husband and I came across an article in the Better Homes and Gardens Halloween magazine about Scott Smith, creator of Rucus Studio, where he created beautiful Halloween folk art out of papier-mache. We were so inspired and instantly tried our hand at using papier-mache to make our own Halloween decorations.

My brother in law was in town, and I watched as he took materials meant for the trash and created a jack-o-lantern! He used nothing but newspaper, flour and water, and I was never the same...

..this was back in 2007. I watched as he and my husband just dove in with reckless abandon. It was like watching a magic show, the paper would turn into whatever they wanted just with a flick of their hands! I had never made anything from papier-mâché before in my life, so I had no idea where to begin, or what to even expect. I watched them for a while, and as I slowly began to understand the basic principals, I stared working and eventually made a witch using a balloon as my base, and thus began my papier-mâché journey. 

There she is (pictured above) in all her glory right behind the crochet pumpkin. She is flawed and rudimentary (nothing close to a Scott Smith) but I love her, she is still one of my favorite Halloween decorations to this day. My husbands gift with art shows well in the two papier-mache pumpkins he made, (Far left and behind the ghost, also pictured below)  they are so expressive and have so much personality. His turned out so great! 

After this experience, I wanted to create more but was unsatisfied with the balloon method; I wanted the body to be petite. I saw on the internet so many inspiring artists who worked with papier-mache; Lori Mitchel and Chloe Remiat were some of my early influences. I like how they used wire to create the arms and legs rather than balloons, and I though I'd try that out. By then it was Christmastime so I made a girl pretending to ice-skate on slippery snow. 

 I thought I would try to sell her in my already existing Etsy shop, Little Lola's, (where I had been selling a few paintings and handmade fabric dolls at the time.) I listed her for $20 just to see if people would even buy it, and someone did! I was amazed and that's when I decided to keep making more. The faces of my girls at that point were kind of primitive or "un-sculpted", since my skills at the craft were still in their infancy. In the spring my husband recommended I try clay to sculpt the faces. He introduced me to Creative Paperclay and I was very pleased with its ease of use and continuity to the medium of papier-mache. The first girl I made with a sculpted face and arms etc. was sold two days after I listed her in my shop! Her name was Isabella.

Once I had used paperclay with papier-mache my mind was filled with all the possibilities of waht i could make and I was hooked and excited to keep making art this way!