Words and mount torso

Hestelle Robinson

One of our fellow bloggers Gilz recently did an insert on an inexpensive and clever idea on how to cover your walls with words, well more than words actually, a whole dictionary in fact.

That reminded me of a similar craft project I embarked on during the December holidays last year.  It was a fun project to work on, as with most fun projects I started with a vague idea of what I wanted to do and then halfway through the project changed course completely.  Notice how I steer away from the word “art”… ha ha

Turns out my project is quite the conversation starter and serves as a great vocal point in my dining room.  The best of all, the project cost me under R300… seriously.

What I used:

• Frame:  Salvaged from a hair salon that closed down
• Hardboard backing – cut to size by my local Builders Warehouse (Off-cuts lying all over the garage awaiting a second life).
• Book:  Used one of my husband’s old Stephen King books (I really am a book fanatic and my books are regarded as old dear friends, just could not get it over my heart to tear pages from any of them so hubby made a sacrifice, I thought it quite apt, a gruesome deed Mr King would be proud of )
• Torsos:  Bought from local China shop (they use these to display their clothes on).
• Wallpaper glue
• White gloss spray paint, Plaster of Paris,
• Silicon and Clear lacquer

How I did it:

• Spray painted the frame a white gloss
• Covered the plastic torsos with a few layers of paper mache – to roughen it up a bit.
• Glued Mr King’s scary words to the hardboard (smooth background).
• Mounted the torsos onto the hardboard with some wire and silicon.
• Covered the torsos with a thick coarse layer of plaster of paris (gooey but fun bit this - scenes from Ghost came to mind)
• Soaked some pages really well in the wallpaper glue, crumbled them and then stuck them around the torsos. (ruffled pieces around the torsos)
• Sprayed a thin layer of white paint over the entire piece.
• Sprayed the project with a protective layer of clear lacquer.
• Voila! Done! (then begged my husband for three solid weeks to mount it onto the dining room wall!)

Even did my bit for the environment here ... by reusing who said the going green had to be boring!