I held onto the Firdemu's body who.... still headless.... hadn't a clue as to what was going on.
As soon as he began to drill the wet 'Great Stuff' that was trapped inside and under pressure spewed out of the top.
The spinning of the drill distributed this gooey sticky foam stuff all over my studio before we had a chance to stop.
This 'accident' really worked out for the best. When the Great Stuff was through oozing, it started to set up around the dowel rod that I had inserted, adding to the overall stability.
I applied 7 layers of papier mache' strips alternating between brown paper and white paper.
As I added to the body I also added strips to the head and neck.
The head is several pieces of gourds glued together, and the upper neck is a piece of electrical conduit.
Then two more layers of papier mache' was added to the whole piece.
This is the basic form of the "Firdemu."
To give you an idea of its height, the quilt behind it is made of 3" squares. The "Firdemu" is about 60" tall.
I also needed to add some strength on his underside, so I mixed up a batch of pulp mache. For this, I used an egg carton torn up into small pieces and soaked in hot water.
I always tear my paper when making any papier mache' strips or pulp. This is true in paper making, also. Tearing allows the fibers to stay intact and retain their original length, where cutting breaks the fibers, causing them to lose strength in the overall piece
