Adventures in Corpsing

I started the corpsing process on corpsy!  Snot ragging is just as messy as the actual paper mache but it didn't take as long because you don't need as many layers.  The glue mixture is different from what I used for the paper mache too.  I used a recipe similar to the one that you can find at my one stop corpsing resource.  However, I don't like to measure anything so my glue mixture is a bit of an as you go sort of thing.  I used the glue, water, and cornstarch but, unlike the recipe I "followed" my mixture was mostly glue and water with just a bit of the cornstarch.  Initially, I was going to follow another set of instructions that just called for glue.  When I tried it though it didn't saturate the tissues enough so I had to mix it.

The really important thing here is that you use two-ply tissues.  That's what seems to give the interesting texture to the process.  The other important thing to remember is that tissues are fragile.  I took an extra bit of time to lay out all my materials beforehand because of this.  With hands covered in glue, pulling tissues out of a box was likely to be an issue.  I pulled out a bunch of tissues and then laid them out in such a way that I could grab a single tissue by the corner without disturbing the others.

From there the process is simple.  Dunk the tissue and apply to the body.  Truth be told, it isn't quite as simple as it sounds.  Like I said earlier, tissues are fragile and that fragility gets worse when they get wet. What I did was hold a tissue on one side with both hands and then dunk the tissue in such a way that the center of the tissue went into the glue and the side that I wasn't holding went up over my hands.  Then I pulled the tissue gently up and open at the same time and let the excess glue drip off.  After it had drained a bit I stuck the now sodden and well named "snot rag" onto the body.  Once you put the snot rag on you pretty much have to leave it there.  Moving it in any meaningful way will make it tear.  All I had to do was cover the whole body in this manner. Another thing you should know is that, because the snot rags are wet, they moisten the mache.  If you don't have a sturdy layer of mache as a base the arms and legs can bend when they get re-wetted,  Sadly, because this is a very messy process the best I can do for photos are before and after shots.  So here you go, before:

And after:

Pretty spiffy, no?

Interestingly enough, the glue dries clear...so the tissues do too.  Not if they're overlapped, but a single tissue will dry about 90% clear on sections where it's flat.  Of course, that gave me an idea which I intend to play with.  I'll share the results with you when I get them. You can't see the effect on corpsy in the pic because the glue was still wet then.  Once the back layer dries, and before I paint, I'll get a few close ups to share.