Little Lady | Krisy Podolak - Helmar Creative Team

Hi Helmar Faithfuls.

Today I am sharing a project that had me revisiting techniques I learned in High School. I still have the sculpture I made sitting on my window sill in my dining room. My last one wasn't quite finished in the same way as this one but I know there is no chance of my children trying to unwrap this one. Curious yet? Here she is.

So, my lady is made using foil, tape and calico. Don't believe me? I'll take you through it.

Here's what you will need:

Tin foil (it's known as al foil here in Australia) You know the tin wrap
masking tape
Helmar Fabric stiffiner & Draping Fluid
strips of Canvas or plain material
Paints

First you have to sculpt your person. So using the tin foil create some balls that will be come a body and head. Then roll up some foil that will become the arms and legs. You can make this as big or small as you like.

Once you are happy with your parts, tape them together using the masking tape. You can use more tin foil to build up areas such as breast and bottom, feet and hands. I am just a bit obsessed with pregnant bellies at the moment so I added once of those to mine. All you need to do is just wrap more foil around or use tape to build up the required areas. You can see this in the photo below.

These are the bones of your sculpture made. All you need to to is add some "Skin". This is where the Helmar Fabric Stiffener & Drapping fluid comes into play.

Cut your material into thin strips. Pour some Draping fluid into a container. Working one strip at a time dipping the fabric into the liquid, scrape off any excess using your fingers and start wrapping your person. Make sure you overlap the layers. Just use your fingers to smooth off the fabric and remove any excess fluid. This is a messy process. Be warned. Make sure you have more than enough strips cut at the beginning of the process.

One strip at a time mummify your person. When you are happy and the whole thing is wrapped set aside to dry. The instructions on the draping fluid say 24 hours but I wanted to make sure my lady was extra dry so I left her for a few days. Once it is dry it is completely solid. Note: I didn't completely smooth out my fabric. I wanted to add some texture.

I then painted my whole lady in white acrylic paint to give a nice base before painting on all the details.

This is a fairly easy project to do. The hardest part is waiting for things to dry. Once my lady was painted I added her to a frame from my stash and she is ready to hang in my craft room.

Here are a few close ups of the finished project.