1st Project 🦅 + Qs for my 2nd Project 🐮
Hi! A couple of year ago, I stumbled into a new hobby of making giant paper mache masks for my friend’s parties/raves. I made this giant Eagle mask most recently and felt compelled to rhinestone it - and I’ve now fallen in love with rhinestoning and I want to keep getting better at it. ✨✨✨
While I really love how it turned out, I know there are also some things I could do to improve it and make it even better. I didn’t watch any tutorials, and just sorta winged it - but now that I’ve found this page, I’d love some guidance for my next project: my cow diva, Norma Jean. 🐮💕 I actually made her over a year ago, but she never fully felt complete to me, so I’m giving her a full color/rhinestone makeover so that she reaches her full potential.
The Eagle’s Process:
I used glass AB rhinestones (all ss20) doing what I now know to be the honeycomb method. I used Gem-tac for the glue, and applied the glue directly to the plaster. This worked *mostly* well, but it was tricky getting even coverage given the odd shape of the mask, so i had to force them into place quite a bit , AND I noticed that the structure itself got a little bendy/pliable once it was all put together. Even some of the plaster underneath started cracking a little. (The venue of the party was pretty hot/sweaty - and so I wonder if the glue combined with the paper mache not being sealed contributed to that… Is that a thing? Could the gemtac have melted and allowed moisture to get to the plaster?
The Plan for the Cow:
I’m choosing to do the scatter method for this one, with ss12, ss16, and ss20 (for the main color of her face I have ss10 bc ss12 wasn’t available). I currently have Liquid Fusion glue, which I’ve heard is comparable to gemtac. I also made the plaster even thicker this time to make it sturdier, I painted the base the coinciding colors, and I also plan to seal it with mod podge before I start the rhinestoning.
My Questions:
Placement/Outline: I understand that with the “scatter method”, i simply use whatever size stone is being called for. However, when it comes to placing stones around the eyes (for instance), should I line the entire eye with the smallest stone first and then start scattering out from there? Or do I scatter from the beginning - even at the edges? Is there any value to using the same size stone for outlining anything? Or is it “all scatter all the time”?
Glue: It seems like E6000 is one of the more suggested glues - but I was turned off by the “toxic” component. Do you think Liquid Fusion will be sufficient for what I’m doing - especially since I did extra layers of plaster and have painted and sealed it? Or is E6000 really that much better?
I ordered glue syringes to use this time, as I think I may have used too much glue last time by not being able to control how much comes out. Is there a general rule of thumb for how much glue to use? I know it’s “too much” if the glue squeezes out around the rhinestones - but how do I know if it’s enough? This may be a dumb question, but it was hard for me to find the balance for some reason lol
Sorry for this being so longwinded! I tend to overthink things, so wanted to cover as many details as I could to make sure I make it as good as possible. I have at least 30+ more hours of this ahead of me, so I wanna make sure I do it right! 🥲🥰
Thanks so much in advance. Pics attached!