Boxing hares and Punch paper mache head

These boxing hares were new in the garden area at The Ropewalk the other day..........aren't they great!

And made out of chicken wire thats rusted up beautifully.

This horse was made out of it too....but painted black.

Well I assume the hares were rusted but maybe they were painted too come to think of it.

 And what could you do with these wonderful spool bobbins, left over from the rope making days!

I worked on my Punch puppet head some more at work today, sliced the paper mache head shape in two with a craft knife.. it had dried nicely and cut apart cleanly.

 You can see the mache layers and the fimo mould inside here.

I hiked out the fimo easily enough, since I'd blethered it with   a covering of vaseline so the mache wouldnt totally stick to it.
But you'll notice I left the bits in the nose and chin,
so they are maybe less likely to get bent or broken off
.............that's my theory anyway.

 Since I hadn't fashioned him a neck, for the fore finger to go into, I snipped a little away at the back of the head and inserted a cardboard tube piece.
Its the central tube from a roll of blue cellophane.

                                                               voila!

 Then I had to mache over the join and cover the neck,
so its layered into position and stays put.
Now I must tell you this is not all my own clever idea.......
I did some googling for suggestions of how to make a paper mache Punch and this technique was explained on an interesting site I found.
http://www.squidoo.com/punch-and-judy-puppets

and this has some good clothing patterns which I may use
http://www.punchandjudy.com/dryadleaflet.htm

So here's Punch, all wet and mache'd up, sat at work till next Monday when I'm back in. He should be dried out by then and I can paint him in gesso to seal the paper mache and give a base to paint on.

OH by the way.........I picked this cotton cloth up at Scrapstore...does anyone know what the presumably chinese characters are please?

I'm guessing it may be the name of a chinese restaraunt but it would be a real bonus if it was something prosaic!

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