| El Alebrije Alebrijes are a completely Mexican art. They were first created in Mexico City by Pedro Linares in the 1940's. Linares already used paper mache to make piñatas, calavera and Judas figures, but after suffering from a high fever began making fantasy creatures. Read Wild Dreams and Rainbow Faces: The Famous Alebrije Artists of Mexico to learn more about Linares. Jennifer Long (de Herrera), that would be me, made her first Alebrije in Cancun, Mexico in 2001. My son had just been born, Mexican, and I was very excited to learn as much as possible about Mexico, Mexican arts and crafts. Alebrijes not only seemed like a great way to express my love of the Mexican culture, but they seemed like a natural extension of my personal art. I didn't take as many in process photos of my first Alebrije as I should have, but there are enough to get the general idea... | ||
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 | The process is not a difficult one though it is time consuming. This Alebrije took about 3 months to finish. The forms are made of newspaper and brown craft paper using the same paper maché mix you probably used in grade school. 1 part flour to 3 parts water. Three layers of craft paper are all that's needed to make the form hard, then all that's left is the painting. Regular house paint works just fine. More recent ones have developed much quicker as I get more experienced with the techniques.
View Paper Maché Gallery | |