Hannah the Hygge Witch

 

Whitney the windswept Witch

Here she it in all her glory!

She might be my absolute favorite one ever! her flowing skirt turned out so well!

 

Works in progress (sculpting again)

My latest sculpture

 Here she is! I just finished glitter-flocking her little tree today!

She is about ten inches tall and wears a handmade jacket with faux fur on the hood. Her jacket is so cute I might have to make one for me too. :)

 I will let you know as soon as I list her in my Little Lolas shop. :)  If you want to get an email when I do list her just click "subscribe to feed" on my Little Lolas shop page.

My Pet Bluebird {Little Lolas paper mache doll}

Here is my newest paper mache sculpture. She is currently available to purchase in my Etsy shop Little Lolas.

Alice sitting on a mushroom

I think this has to be my favorite papier-mache sculpture I have made!

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!

Suger Plum Fairy