I purchased this large (maybe 4.5 inches high) paper mache egg from Joann Fabrics in the 70% off bin after easter this year. I thought I could use it as a form on which to work some polymer clay to make a large polymer clay egg.
Not entirely successful, there were some surprises. I did poke a hole in it during baking (tiny at the bottom), and it was firm enough to easily put the clay upon. I did this in about 4 curings since didn’t want the shapes to get squeezed out when I added other slices. This might have been a mistake… maybe doing it all at once would have prevented two problems. 1: it has taken a lot of sanding to try to get rid of the small deviations and divots in the surface, i mean a lot of sanding, perhaps an insane amount of sanding. Not all were removed to my satisfaction so i filled some of the deeper depressions with new thin slices of polymer clay, which brought on problem 2: the different areas of polymer clay looked like they shrank away from each other with the last curing.
THis is another example of the choice to “cut my losses” or to try to figure out whether i can save this egg, and turn it into something nice. I wish there were a forum to ask this advice, but enabling comments on wordpress is just asking for trouble.
