Paper Plate Polar Bear

This idea is a great example of ‘pure making’ where the whole paper plate gets used up, and the parts that are removed are then incorporated back into the design.

The process is pretty quick and creates a fairly strong model which obviously can just be painted.

However, you could make this stronger by adding a layer of tissue paper, pasted on with watered down PVA glue. This makes it a lot more durable and also easier to paint.

Once my model had dried I decided to take it a stage further, creating the Polar Bear character of Lorek Byrnison from Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’. I simply used cut up pieces to cardboard tube to build the armoured headdress. This works well because the pieces already have a curve to them and so they tend to fit together better. I glued these on, holding them steady with small bits of tape if necessary that could be removed later once the model was dry.

You can use other ‘textures’ to make the armour more elaborate. Here, I’ve just used some corrugated cardboard and, in places, I’ve used a hole-punch to make what look like rivets or studs.

The painting really brings this to life. I’ve used some brown paint and water-based metallics to paint the armour and then used a simple icy blue for the background and splattered it with some white paint. I’ve also introduced some of the blue colour into the shadows on the armour and also onto the bear’s fur.