Paper mache often requires hotter temperature settings than a wood surface. Experiment with your settings to see which give you the best results.
There are two great advantages to trying paper mache – the cost is minimal and there is a great variety of shapes available.
Step 5:
The burning steps for this project was done with a variable temperature unit using both the standard writing tip and the skew tip. The tonal values were developed slowly using a random doodle texture, line texture and dot pattern. Through out this project my temperature settings ranged from 7 to 9.
Paper mache is a product create by mixing finely shredded paper scraps with a white glue based media. This makes the paper mache easy to shape and very firm in consistency – a great burning surface. I have found paper mache requires a hotter temperatures than wood, it is compatible to burning on paper or cloth fiber surface. Be patient as you work the burning up to deep color tones.
Burn this design as one unit going right around the corners on the petals, center and butterfly to keep your tonal values even. Leave the highlight areas inside of the sunflower petals, center and butterfly unburned.
In the next steps we will be using colored pencils as our coloring agent. Watercolors and artist quality acrylic paints well thinned with water are also excellent medias for adding color over a paper mache burning.