Hi Guys.
Some of you might be wanting to build sets for your productions. I found rocks were a  little tricky to figure out to do cheaply, effectively, and to store well, when I  first started out. But now I have had some reasonable success and I would like to share a few techniques. This first one is your classic news paper and cornflour paper mache, with a few tips to making it look quite reasonable.

http://youtu.be/8bERgsjvDFs

Bravo! Is there anything you can not make. That was a rock solid video. Thanks again for sharing your talents with us.

I am surprised it holds it shape so well.  I never thought of using corn flower, always used wheat flour for paper mache. My artist brother in law showed me how to use sponge painting to make more detailed rock types, like granite. After basecoat we dripped several similar paint shades (white, grey, black) in a paper plate, stired it a tiny bit like two twirls and sponged it on lightly with big hole sponge. It looked pretty realistic, but we did not think of making it more 3D like your wall, good idea.

Great video. Thanks for sharing!!

I really like rocks- this is great. At times I had a few diffeculties following you, though. You talk quite fast for me as a non native speaker...

That was brilliant. Thank you.

On a side note, what I love most about people sharing these vids is an opportunity to put a face and voice to the name we all correspond with so readily. I wish more people would 

Thanks for the video! You just can't beat good old papermache' for a quick and dirty application.  Never used corn flour. Good to know it works as a glue.   I love how light weight and portable these are.

Thanks for your comments. Billy, yes there are things I don't think I could make... but if I really need it, I'll give it a try.
Snail, any chance of you doing a tutorial on the granite  texture painting technique? I had a request for how to do a marbling texture, but never really got around to it. Maybe I should do that.
    Sorry Rika about my english, I have a kiwi accent, so it might be a bit difficult. I'll keep that in mind in the  future.
lizzie, your turn...I'd love to hear how broad your Auzzie accent is
and yes Shawn, they are lightweight, and store pretty well in the attic, and you just mix them around and  bend them around etc, and hey presto you have a new set  with very little work next time around.I also used flour and water when I was young. We didn't cook it, but  cooking the flour (I suppose flour would work too) makes it a lot more 'pastey'. They use arrowroot(sp?) here too, and even cook a root called yuka, until it totally  turns to gloop. The deal is that basically starch is what is doing the  gluing. Even potatoes would work , but would take a lot of cooking to get to the same  point as corn flour.And the secret, use lots of it and it has to dry totally  before you move it. It is very weak when damp, but solid when dry.

so.. another from my channel to make this a rock making thread..

http://youtu.be/_64wpGKEmHw

http://youtu.be/6Hd8MbXbzzs

http://youtu.be/oxRfzwCrgGs

Thanks for sharing. Great ideas & tips.

Nice ideas thank you for sharing. Where did your beard go?  

Nooooo I am not going to do a video tutorial, my video camera and tripod are both broken and my sons are always borrowing my still camera.

I bought a marblizing paint kit many years ago, the techniques used were many of the same you use, mutlicolor mixing with natural sponge painting, splatter painting with toothbrush and popsicle stick, and veining with feather as paint brush.  

Once we needed a brick type wall and we used a cheap kitchen rectangle sponge but picked out some bits of the sponge with tweezers to make it more rough looking. That was the fastest wall I ever painted.  My Dad and brothers have air conditioning business and they saved me large cardboard boxes for my sets.  We reinforced the backside with thin strips of wood stapled in because the carboard would bow when only one side was painted.  

Then an art teacher taught me a good trick to lightly spray the back side of paper with water when painting only front side to keep paper from bowing with the moisture.  Sorry no pictures those sets are long gone and all I have are VHS tapes of performances. I need to figure out how to save VHS to digital before they crumble away.

Snail,my beard is still on... The vids are in reverse order. The pressure is coming on to get the filming we are doing done, so I can trim it back. Filming is real slow though.
Pity about your camera. You need to do some VHS transfers pronto. USB converters are cheap and effective.

You rock!
I didn't get what type of glue you use, though.
This might work for close ups, too:
http://www.floristik-geschenke-bastel-shop.de/pic/Islandmoos-piniengruen-praepariert-Sparpack-600-g.1017-101-119-SPp.jpg
This is prepared to be green, it's grey normally. I get it a the local florist shop, they have different shades of green, brown and grey and it is not expensive. I really like the music on the last. First. Well, the less bearded...

Hey Rika, The florist stuff in english is lichen I think.('Islandmoos' in the link indicates it is, I think) I have used it on miniatures. I can find it in the countryside here, and you just dry it. After a while it goes brown so painting is necessary if you want it another color. When I use Photocopy paper to make rocks, I use PVA, white glue , Elmers, school craft glue, carpentry glue...you know that common white glue, with about a 50% water content. It sticks Photocopy paper well, but newspaper sucks it up, so it gets a little  expensive for me, so with the newspaper I used the cornflour paste.

Is corn flour the same as corn starch? Corn starch is used as a thickening agent in sauces here in the US.

Yes, I think so Billy. Corn flour is used as thickening, or making custard. Give it a try