Experimentation Critique

I brought in my paper materials into class today -- over the weekend I made several sheets of paper with colors and textures and pressed fresh pulp into a mold I made. The critique I received today was minimal, since I have a good idea of my project -- but the process and technique is what I'm ultimately working on right now. Right now it is hard to show my project since I'm not actually working on the concept, but the material processes itself, but now that I have some visuals as to what I'm trying to achieve I believe people are starting to see what I am ultimately making.

I made a press mold of a Bison/Highlander Cow and popped out the piece into a successful smooth paper sculpture. It was suggested that I try looking into different types of relief carvings made out of stone by Chinese sculptors or plaster carvings by Italian and Greek sculptors so I can try layering different levels of paper sculptures on top of each other to get better effects. I need to make my sculpture a little "deeper" as someone suggested. Another suggestion I received was to try rubber molds for more detail. I can purchase some latex mold supplies at a local hobby store just to see how the pulp responds, but my major concern with that is the water might "pool" between the latex and the paper, so that might be the reason why my experiment last week took so long to dry. The drying process is what concerns me the most where I need to think about the time I have for the upcoming year. Some parts of the bison cast was too shallow to see and I need to figure out the right time to pull the pulp out of my mold without worrying out the paper getting "stuck" and tearing. That was a problem I had in my sample today -- my cast was still too wet and it tore in fragile areas. The next stage is that I will be making a mold with a 3D form combined with a 2D form and make one universal piece. (As in a muliple piece mold rather than a press mold so I can figure out how to make a paper sculpture with a 360 view all around rather than the press mold and only seeing 180 degrees) I'm going to layer various levels on top of each other and see how it goes. Just visualizing how I will plan this mold has elevated the difficulty of this next step by a lot.