I was warned

A couple months back the plumber was here hooking up the big gas tank and installing the new water heater.  It was a nice day so I was outside papier macheing.  The plumber was kind of an old guy, the father of the plumber I actually hired.  He was Ligurian -- Ligurian born, raised, and eventually dead.  Ligurians are very proud of being a frugal group.  All other Italians call them tight, cheap, short-armed.  This old plumber was frugal even with his speech.  He didn't say two words to me all day.  Well, not until I got out the papier mache.

"Is that flour and water glue you're using there?"

My surprise at his knowing what it was must have clouded my thinking a little.  I said, "Yeah!  Do you papier mache?!"

"Um. No.  But when I was a kid we didn't have real glue.  Our moms made us that stuff for sticking things together."

"Really?  How smart of them."

"Be careful.  The mice eat it."

Damn if that old plumber didn't know what he was talking about.

 Yep, that is the base of a sculpture called War and Peace with a big mouse hole in it. 

I found a copy of the epic book and am going to recycle it into an epic sized papier mache sculpture (that's my way of wording it so it sounds like I'm doing something noble when in fact I am ripping apart a great work of literature so I can use the pages for a sculpture).  A while back, when I put on the first layer and it was still wet Ruffino ate a piece out of it (apparently not only mice get the hankerin for a good piece of papier mache).  When I told my friend Christine about that she suggested that I change the name of the sculpture to War and A Piece Missing, which I thought was most clever.  Now, just as the plumber had warned me, I've got War and a Bunch of Pieces Missing.

I really like that I'm able to get helpful tips about my artwork from the plumber.

Going with this papier mache theme...I'd like to introduce Dorthea (aka: Do Si Do Dot)

The other girls and I had a little coming out party for her.

This party was a suggestion by always-thinking cousin, Whitney.  I thought it was such a good idea that as soon as we got done skyping I set it up.  And it was a great idea until I sat down with them and my beer, then it became a creepy idea.  Have you ever sat on your front patio drinking a beer with 4 papier mache girls who have no faces and a papier mache bird/fish?  It's weird, and not all that comfortable.
At the party, before I broke it up because I got weirded out, we gave a good luck toast to Jalieia and Spot who are now on display at a funky little studio/shop/museum place in San Remo where Christine and I have some of our Liguria Dog goods.

They've been sealed with real glue, and shellacked....I think they're safe from any mice.