Thread: B.Y.O.B.: Paper Mache Skeleton

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Alrighty then.

Scapula and Clavicle templates (shoulder blade, collar bone)

For the Scapula, we need to measure out a triangle at 6.5" sides. Then, I just freehand a rough shape into the triangle:



I do want to note that these need to be fairly heavy duty, so add a couple extra layers when you mache. The original Bob suffered only one break during corpsing, and it was the clavicle/scapula.

Next, the clavicles are just a straight 7" strip.

However, when you mache, you want to curve them, just a tad.



There's really nothing preventing you from going on to make the rest of the bones all at once, I just don't have time myself.

Attaching the Scapula and Clavicle...I'm pulling out my construction adhesive.

There's really no reason not to mache them in place, other than I'm lazy, and I suck.

So, a little glue here, a little there, and tada!



You want the ends of the scapula/clavicle connection to be about even with the widest portion of the ribs. The painters tape there is probably superfluous. The glue has a highe enough tack to hold them just fine, but just in case the cat come to 'investigate'...

With the powergrab, and a little water, you can smooth out the glue easily. Can't really coment on other brands of adhesive.



With my chest now done, I'm at a crossroads. Arms...or legs? Both present the builder with numberous decisions.

More Please!

Yeah, sorry. I took Sunday evening and Monday off from Bob.

We are at a crossroads where you, the builder, need to begin making some decisions on how you want your skeleton to work. I'll outline the means I've come up with to accomplish a number of tasks, however.

First, the Humerus, Radius, and Ulna (arms):



The Humerus (upper arm) measures 10" long, 2" wide at both ends, and 1" wide in the middle.

Just use your tape to shape the things. A ball at the shoulder, a cylinder in the middle, that flattens out at the elbow. Then, mache on over it.



Now, the Radius and Ulna (forearms), there's 2 means. If you are going to want your wrist to rotate, you'll want to make them seperate. And we'll discuss how to accomplish that after I get pictures of it on Thursday.

However, if you are going to have a static pose, for a groundbreaker, or something similiar, there is really no reason to make this more difficult, and just make one template for the both, and glue the hands right to it.

In any case, these measure 9" long, and 1/2" wide. You want a slight bow to each, or if you want to get REAL technical, the Ulna has a slight "s" shape to it. We're not going quite that accurate...though I had been considering it, but it was getting complicated with the hands...this project has given me a whole new perspective on skeletal design...

Anyway, back to the tutorial. Agan, tape to form the bones, then mache over them.



Or, the easier single template design (with hands glued on):



Speaking of hands, I cannot do any better than this tutorial here. Just using your mache clay. I just trace my own hands for measurments.

From here, if you know a pose you want the arms in, it's just a matter of glueing it all in place. I'll be articulating Bob's arms on Thursday, a day to dry, probably be able to post the process on Friday night.

Meanwhile, I'll be starting on the pelvis and legs.

No need for apologies... just really enjoying your step by step, detailed instructions.
(trying not to be impatient)
Something that includes all the measurements has been great.
THANKS!!

Oh, I felt bad taking the break. I really did. I just needed a break from Bob Jr. here. I worked on OTHER things for a couple nights, but it was always in the back of my mind I really SHOULD be getting around to more Bob.

I'm glad you're finding this usefull!

Keep on me and don't let me get too sidetracked. I sometimes need that push.

I am going to be slowing down with the legs, however, as the original Bob still lacks them, so I'm making 2 sets at once. But, the good news is plans have changed for this evening, I should be able to do some articulation tonight, and work towards getting the pelvis and legs, if drying time goes well, done this weekend!

Tidbits:

Up to now, Bob has consumed:

1 Diapers Box salvaged from the recycle bin
1 Sunday Newspaper.
1/2 roll electrical tape because I'm out of duct and didn't bother to go to the store.
small amount of painters tape again, 'cause I'm too lazy to go shopping for duct...
1 cup of flour (I make my recipe in half-batches these days)
3/4 tube of Power Grab. 1/2 for the mache paste, 1/4 for the shoulders
8 clothes hangers.

He's easily under $5 in construction costs.

Don't feel bad!! You are doing US a favor!
Was not trying to pressure you.
Is your little 3 yr. old feeling better?
(you said in an earlier post they were coming down with something.)

Shoulder articulation:

If you are wanting to articulate the shoulder, here is a means I come up with that gives pretty decent range of movement.

You will need ~3" lengths of your hanger wire.

We are going to bend and glue one in place with your construction adhesive right at the shoulder so it makes a more or less straight bar across the gap:



Then, bend another piece to fit to the Humerus. This is where I'm not even sure how to describe what's going on...but I'll try to get the point across.

The wires will just hook together.



This allows some rotation between them, but there are limits. You want to make sure to set the limit where you want that rotation to be. The best way to do this is to set one extreme first.

For me, I am never going to want this arm to come back behind the skeleton, so my limit was to have the elbow on the table, flush with the spine. Then arrange the wires so they could not rotate 'back' any more before glueing it all in place. Does that make sense, I hope?


(See how the wires cannot rotate any further clockwise...)




(Glued in place with the humerous)



Shoulder limit arm down.



Shoulder limit arm up.



This is a fairly decent range of motion, but not perfect. The wire blends in fairly well, and should be easy enough to cover up when aging or corpsing.

Elbow articulation option 1.

Elbow articulation can be accomplished by much the same means. Wire hinges:



Glued into place at either end, you have a quick and easy elbow.

(pic from original Bob using the easy forearm template, not current one)



In fact, by attaching a seperate radius and ulna each by a single such joint here, then another single such joint at the wrist, some wrist rotation could actually be accomplished.

I have a plan to better accomplish that using guitar strings in place of this wire at both the elbow and wrist, but that is going to have to wait for a while. I was informed my plans need to really accelerate on my laboratory this year, so I need to get cracking on that.

The good news here, though, is I need to make Legs for the original Bob (huge part of the lab) anyway, so we'll just be focusing on the legs here until that is done, then we'll go back and catch up the rest.

Beautiful work so far. Looking forward to more.

This is a great tutorial - so many uses beyond just a whole skeleton. I'm going to follow your instructions to make a bunch of bones for a bone chandelier I want to make. Thanks!

We hit some crappy weather this weekend which really impacted my drying times. Especially since my hair dryer finally gave out in the middle as well. And I had some family commitments which left me with less time on this than I would have liked. So, not quite as far as I had hoped.

And, some 'mistakes' have been made. (not really, but well, I'll explain later)

So, the Pelvis....

this really comes down to 3 bones, and I'm still at work with it. I came up with 2 differing methods on the pelvis bones. I'll post them both, and you can determine which is going to work for you.

The tail bone, first of all, though.

I'm just going to post this here. This is my tracing of a portion the pelvis (I decided on 2 templates to make a pelvis bone), followed by measurements on the tail bone, femur (thigh), and tibia (shin). The Tail Bone is in the upper right hand side there.


Since it's hard to read, it's 3" wide. It's 4 1/2" long, and the straight notches on either side are 2" long. So, you could draw a rectangle 2" x 3", then measure down another 2 1/2" in the center there, and draw a triangle. Sorry for not getting a better pic of the thing.

Now, this has a curve to it, and a cross section of the bone is shown on there as well, so once curved, it should be 3" long.

The thing is rather angled where it will connect to the pelvis as well, so here is a photo of how mine is attached to Bob:



This is where my 'mistake' was made. While this angle at the top of the tailbone is VERY accurate with the angle a real tailbone hooks to the spine, a real spine is not straight, it bends. This is making this Bob's pelvis look rather odd right now. I'll probably just add a lumbar bend to my spine when I'm done, since it's EMT conduit and I have a bender, but I'ld recommend, were I to do it again, to just make the angled portion of the tailbone nearly parallel to the spine and bend the 'tail' portion more backwards.

On to the pelvis template.

There are 2 ways to do this, so, METHOD 1:

First, by my tracing above, you can see it's 8 1/2" Long, 4 1/2" wide. That widest part comes 4 1/2" down from the top.

An easy way to accomplish this is to measure that 8 1/2" line. Measure down 4 1/2", and measure to the side of that mark 4" on one side and 1/2" on the other, make yourself some triangles off these marks, then freehand the shape with those triangles as a guide:



You'll need 2 of these, then we mache them together.



This is when method 2 struck me...why not do them together in 1 template?



As a side note here, I VERY MUCH PREFER the case of soda cardboard here to the corregated for this particular bone.

The 1 1/2" in the center there corresponds to my tracing, but I'ld probably shave that area to 1", myself, and likely will, since I have not quite gotten around to that particular area with the mache yet.

I did get this attached to Bob, but it was still wet, and no pics just yet.

The femur templates, again, above, bottom center.
16" long, 3 1/4" wide at the hip, 1 1/4" wide in the center, 3 1/2" wide at the knee. (4 legs for my 2 Bobs)



As with the Humerus, it's a ball at the hip, a cylinder in the center that flattens out towards the knee. If you really want to get technical, you can add a slight 'y' at the knee for super accuracy.

I have not gotten around to my tibia's yet, but you can see in the pic above the general shape top center. They measure 14" long, 3 3/4" wide at the knee (this actually takes into account the fibula at the knee as well for simplicity of the knee joint, so you want to lopside one side. ), 1" wide in the center, 2 1/2" side at the base (again, this accounts for the fibula for simplicity of the joint, so you want that lopsided to one side)