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| This is the "figuratively" batty part of the title. Two weeks ago, I was outside in the dark, stumbled, and fell backward. Of course I tried to cushion my landing with my arm. Wrongo ... right now I'm thinking I would have been better off trying to land on my head. But then, I'm just really frustrated with the whole episode! But, onward ... |
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| This is the first stage. I made bodies with crumpled newspaper [hard to find these days]. They were held together with masking tape, as were the wings. The wings were constructed of metal coat hangers [also hard to come by] and some used electric wire from the barn - usually run across the tops of fences to prevent the horses from nibbling on them. |
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| Here's the smaller bat with the supporting armature completed. I started with a smaller model as I was unsure how well it would turn out. As it seemed to be going well, I started Big Bat. |
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| Baby Bat had a 40 cm wingspan, Big Bat a bit over 80 cm. |
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| This was the FUN part, getting all gloppy and messy, wetting strips of newspaper with flour/water glue, applying that to the armature, and starting to model the shape of the bat. |
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| Standing on his head, drying. The paper mache was done, and I was staring to apply acrylic paint. |
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| The hoary bats [a species widespread in North America] were pretty much finished, just waiting for some wire to hold them up for display. |
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| The eyes were ball-shaped pin heads. |
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| Here I was delivering the boys to my friend. All those balls hanging above were paper mache lanterns, also made for the display. All of this was for an event Christine was arranging. Until retiring, she had been an environmentalist with Environment Canada. The event was organized to promote awareness and appreciation for the ecology of our area. The event was held at Campbell Valley Park, and under the auspices of the Little Campbell Watershed Society. The event was very well-received. It was so beautiful to see all the displays, pathways through the park lit by lanterns. The paper mache bats were much appreciated by the lovely couple manning the "bat booth". I decided to donate the bats to them, as they travel all over the province, educating the public about bats. As for me, I really enjoyed getting back into paper mache again. Now back to painting, and being VERY thankful I did not break my painting hand! Thank you very much for dropping by. I hope you enjoyed the post! Next time, maybe something about horses or paintings I'm working on ... |
